CAMBRIDGE
DESCRIBED
AND <
ILLUSTRATED
CAMBRIDGE
DESCRIBED & ILLUSTRATED
BEING A SHORT HISTORY OF THE
TOWN AND UNIVERSITY
By THOMAS DINHAM ATKINSON; with an Introduction
by JOHN WILLIS CLARK, M.A., F.S.A., Registrary
of the University, Late Fellow of Trinity College
LONDON: MACMILLAN and COMPANY, Limited
CAMBRIDGE: MACMILLAN and BOWES: 1897
FEB 10 ?937
CAMBRIDGE :
PRINTED BY J. AND C. F. CLAY,
AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS.
PREFACE
I CAN NOT claim for this volume that it represents
the result of any great amount of original research,
although it is the work of several years. Two works
in particular have made the task of all later writers on
Cambridge comparatively easy. Cooper's Annals of
Cambridge forms the foundation of my history of the
Town ; while my account of the University is taken,
by the kind permission of Mr J. W. Clark, from
Messrs Willis and Clark's Architectural History of
the University and Colleges of Cambridge. In fact, I
have used the latter work so extensively that I have
refrained from citing it as my authority except in cases
where a particular passage is quoted. All my block-
plans of colleges have been reduced from the plans
in the fourth volume of the same work.
While, however, there is little in my book that is
new to the scholar and the archaeologist, the materials
have now been arranged for the first time so as to form
a continuous history of the Town ; a few architectural
descriptions have also been added. In the part relating
DA
vi PREFACE
to the University, complete lists of University and
college portraits are included. Some of these lists
have been drawn up by friends whose kindness I
have, I hope in every case, acknowledged ; for the
rest I am myself responsible. I have almost in-
variably accepted the generally received title and
attribution of a portrait, with little or no attempt at
verification. Such attempts, even if successful, would
have postponed almost indefinitely the completion of
the book. I have included nothing with regard to
the interesting examples of Plate belonging to the
various colleges, as they already find a place in the
recent publication Old Cambridge Plate.
The admirable drawings of the University and
college heraldry have been made by Messrs Walker
and Boutall from the shields drawn by W. H. St John
Hope, M.A. The blazoning is taken from the same
author's Paper in the Proceedings of the Cambridge
Antiquarian Society. The steel engravings have been
selected from those made by Storer, and by Le Keux
for the Memorials of Cambridge.
I have to thank several friends who have helped
me in various ways : Professor Hughes, Professor
Ridgeway, Mr J. E. Foster, M.A., Mr Arthur Gray,
M.A., Mr W. H. St John Hope, M.A., and especially
the Reverend W. Cunningham, D.D. Mr J. E. L.
Whitehead, M.A., Town Clerk, has most courteously
allowed me access to documents in his custody. To
PREFACE Vli
Mr Robert Bowes my thanks are due for the warm
interest he has shewn in every detail of the book, and
for much assistance of many kinds.
Throughout my work I have had the invaluable
advantage of Mr J. W. Clark's wide knowledge and
sound judgment. He has read the whole book both
in manuscript and in proof, and it owes much to his
careful revision.
I have also to thank the Syndics of the University
Press for the loan of several illustrations from the
Architectural History already mentioned.
T. D. ATKINSON.
CAMBRIDGE,
Michaelmas, 1897.
CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
PREFACE. ... . . v
INTRODUCTION .... xxiii
THE TOWN.
SITUATION AND EARLY HISTORY ....
Situation i. Castle 2. Name 3. Gild of Thanes 7.
The two towns 8. 'The Borough' 9. S. Benedict's
Church 10.
II THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY . . . .12
Farm of the town 12. Gild Merchant 15. Right to
elect a Mayor 18. Quarrels with the University 19. The
Four-and-Twenty 22. Representation in Parliament 25.
Maces and Seals 30.
III LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES . . 34
Local Government 35. Gilds 45. List of Gilds 57.
IV TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE . . .60
The King's Ditch 61. Market Place 64. Street
names 70. Inns and Coffee-Houses 71. Commons 79.
X CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
V MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS ...... 81
Guildhall 84. Shire House 88. Gaol 92.
VI LATER HISTORY . .96
The Sixteenth Century 96. The Civil War 102.
Municipal Reform 114.
VII THE CHURCHES 121
Parish Churches 121. Nonconformists 171. Roman
Catholics 177. Cemeteries 178.
VIII THE RELIGIOUS HOUSES 179
Barn well Priory 180. Priory of S. Radegund 184.
Hospital of S. John 194. Stourbridge Hospital for
Lepers 198. List of Religious Houses, Hospitals, Chapels
and Almshouses 200.
IX STOURBRIDGE FAIR ...... 203
Other Fairs 203. Defoe's account of Stourbridge
Fair 207. The Theatre 212.
X MISCELLANEA . . . . . . . .214
Perse Grammar School 214. Leys School 218. Old
Schools of Cambridge 219. British Schools 221. Indus-
trial School 221. Working Men's College 221. School
of Art 223. Training College 223. Technical Institute
224. Addenbrooke's Hospital 224. Henry Martyn Hall
226. Railways 226. Rifle Corps 228. Public Works,
&c. 230. Newspapers 232. Societies and Clubs 233.
List of distinguished natives of Cambridge 235.
CONTENTS xi
THE UNIVERSITY.
CHAPTER PAGE
XI THE UNIVERSITY ....... 241
History 241. Social Life 254.
XII THE SCHOOLS, LIBRARY AND SENATE-HOUSE . .270
Schools 270. Library and Senate-House 275. Paint-
ings and Sculpture 288.
XIII PETERHOUSE, CLARE AND PEMBROKE . . .291
Peterhouse 291. Clare 302. Pembroke 311.
XIV GONVILLE AND CAIUS, TRINITY HALL AND CORPUS
CHRISTI ........ 322
Gonville and Caius 322. Trinity Hall 333. Corpus
Christi 343.
XV KING'S COLLEGE 351
XVI QUEENS' AND S. CATHARINE'S .... 373
Queens' 373. S. Catharine's 386.
XVII JESUS, CHRIST'S, S. JOHN'S, AND MAGDALENE . 394
Jesus 394. Christ's 406. S.John's 41 5. Magdalene
426.
XVIII TRINITY COLLEGE 435
XIX EMMANUEL, SIDNEY SUSSEX AND DOWNING . .456
Emmanuel 456. Sidney Sussex 465. Downing 472.
XX SELWYN AND RIDLEY . . . . . -475
Selwyn College 475. Ridley Hall 477.
XXI GIRTON AND NEWNHAM 479
Girton College 479. Newnham College 482.
xii CONTENTS
CHAPTER PAGE
XXII UNIVERSITY BUILDINGS AND BOTANIC GARDEN . 485
Printing Press 485. Museums of Natural Science
487. Woodwardian Museum 488. Observatory 489.
Fitzwilliam Museum 492. Divinity School 494. Syndi-
cate Buildings 494. Botanic Garden 495. Portraits 495.
XXIII SOCIETIES AND CLUBS 499
Union Society 499. Philosophical Society 499. Ray
Club 500. Cambridge Camden Society 500. University
Musical Society 501. Philological Society 501.
ADDITIONS AND CORRECTIONS .... 502
AUTHORITIES CONSULTED . . . 503
GENERAL INDEX . ..... 505
INDEX OF PORTRAITS :
SUBJECTS -. 521
ARTISTS . . . . . . . -527
PLATES
Engraved by
VIEW OF CAMBRIDGE; from Castle Hill, 1841
By Mackenzie, Le Keux. Frontispiece
THE MARKET PLACE. Shewing its old form, 1842 p a c g e g
By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 48
CHURCH OF S. MARY THE GREAT. Exterior, west
end, 1841 . . . . . By Bell. Le Keux. 148
CHURCH OF S. MARY THE GREAT. Interior, looking
east, shewing the throne, 1841 . By Bell. Le Keux. 152
CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY. Exterior, from
the south-east, shewing the old Chancel, 1830 Storer. 168
CHURCH OF THE HOLY TRINITY. Interior, looking
east, shewing the old Chancel, 1830 . . . Storer. 170
PETERHOUSE : THE CHAPEL. Exterior, west end,
1842 ..... By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 296
CLARE COLLEGE : THE COURT. Looking east,
1842 ..... By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 302
PEMBROKE COLLEGE: THE STREET FRONT, 1842
By Bell. Le Keux. 311
GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE : THE GATE OF
HUMILITY, 1841 . . . . By Bell. Le Keux. 322
XIV PLATES
Facing
Engraved by page
GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE : THE GATE OF
VIRTUE. Shewing also the east end of the
Chapel. From the Fellows' garden, 1841
By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 328
GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE : THE GATE OF
HONOUR. Shewing also the Senate-House, the
University Library and King's College Chapel,
1841 ...... By Bell. Le Keux. 332
KING'S COLLEGE : THE OLD COURT. Now the west
court of the University Library, 1831 . . Storer. 352
KING'S COLLEGE : THE CHAPEL. Interior, looking
east, 1841 . . . . By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 360
KING'S COLLEGE : THE CHAPEL. Exterior, from
the south, 1841 . . By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 368
QUEENS' COLLEGE : THE CLOISTER COURT.
Shewing the Hall before its restoration, 1842
By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 374
QUEENS' COLLEGE : THE RIVER FRONT. Shewing
also the old town bridge, 1842 . By Bell. Le Keux. 384
JESUS COLLEGE : THE GATEWAY. Shewing the
Gateway and Master's Lodge before their restora-
tion, 1842 . ... By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 400
CHRIST'S COLLEGE: THE STREET FRONT, 1838
By Bell. Le Keux. 406
S. JOHN'S COLLEGE : THE SECOND COURT. Look-
ing east, 1840 .... By Bell. Le Keux. 415
S. JOHN'S COLLEGE: THE NEW BRIDGE, 1840
By Bell. Le Keux. 420
MAGDALENE COLLEGE : THE PEPYSIAN LIBRARY,
1842 ..... By Mackenzie. Le Keux 426
TRINITY COLLEGE : THE GREAT GATE, 1838
By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 435
PLATES XV
Facing
Engraved by page
TRINITY COLLEGE : THE GREAT COURT. Shewing
the Great Gate, the Chapel, King Edward's
Gate, and the Fountain, 1838 . By Bell. Le Keux. 440
TRINITY COLLEGE : THE LIBRARY AND CLOISTERS,
1832 ........ Storer. 446
TRINITY COLLEGE : THE HALL. Interior, looking
north, 1838 . . . . . By Bell. Le Keux. 448
EMMANUEL COLLEGE: THE CHAPEL, 1842
By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 456
DOWNING COLLEGE. As proposed by Wilkins.
Shewing the proposed Chapel and Library in
the centre, and the existing Master's Lodge and
Hall to the right and left, 1842 By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 472
THE FITZWILLIAM MUSEUM, 1841 By Mackenzie. Le Keux. 492
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
FIGURE PAGE
1. BLOCK MAP OK THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF CAMBRIDGE.
By the Author ....... 3
2. THE TOWER OF S. BENEDICT'S CHURCH. From
Willis and Clark . . . . . . . 1 1
3. ARMS OF THE BOROUGH, GRANTED IN 1575. By
Messrs Walker and Boutall . . . . . 12
4. SERGEANT'S MACE, TIME OF CHARLES I. By the
Author, 1895 . . . . . . . 31
The mace is of copper-gilt and is about loj inches long.
Only a small part of the cresting round the rim of the bowl
remains. This mace was found a few years ago buried among
piles of papers in the Town Clerk's office.
5. SEAL OF 1423. By the Author, from the cast of a seal
in the British Museum . . . . . . 33
6. FIRE HOOK, preserved in S. Benedict's Churchyard.
By the Author ....... 39
7. VIEW OF KING'S PARADE. By the Author, 1896 . 63
8. PART OF HAMOND'S MAP OF 1592. From one of the
original sheets in the possession of Mr J. E. Foster . 65
9. THE MARKET CROSS. From Lyne's map of 1574 . 66
10. THE WRESTLERS YARD. Now destroyed. By the
Author, from a sketch made by him in 1884 . 73
11. THE FALCON YARD. Now partly destroyed. By the
Author, from a sketch made by him in 1883 . 75
12. JOHN VEYSY'S TRADE MARK. By the Author . . 77
The device is carved in a spandril of one of the clunch
chimney-pieces which still remain in situ.
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT xvii
FIGURE FACE
13. HOUSES IN SILVER STREET. Now destroyed. By
the Author, from a sketch made by him in 1883 . 78
14. PLAN OF THE MARKETS AND MUNICIPAL BUILDINGS.
By the Author, 1896 82
15. THE OLD GUILDHALL. From Cole's copies of plans
drawn by Essex, probably in 1781, after the demoli-
tion of the building had begun. MSS. Cole, Vol.
XII. p. 151, in the British Museum . . . 83
1 6. PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF S. EDWARD. From Willis
and Clark . . . . . . . .139
17. THE CHURCH OF S. GILES. From a plan drawn by
Mr Walter Bell and from old photographs . . 143
1 8. "JESUS HELP BETON." From MSS. Cole, Vol. II.
p. 43, in the British Museum . . . .145
19. PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF S. MICHAEL. From Willis
and Clark ........ 160
20. PLAN OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE.
By the Author, partly from old plans, 1896. . 165
21. VIEW OF THE CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULCHRE
BEFORE ITS RESTORATION. From an engraving by
William Byrne of a drawing by T. Hearne . 166
22. PLAN OF THE PRIORY OF S. RADEGUND. By the
Author . . . . . . . . .187
23. BLOCK-PLAN OF JESUS COLLEGE .... 189
24. PRIORY OF S. RADEGUND : DOOR OF THE CHAPTER
HOUSE. By the Author, 1896 . . . .190
25. PISCINA IN THE HOSPITAL OF S. JOHN. From Willis
and Clark ........ 196
26. ARMS OF THE UNIVERSITY, GRANTED IN 1573 . 241
27. CHAMBER WITH STUDIES. From Willis and Clark . 257
28. PLAN OF GROUND FLOOR OF THE PERSE AND LEGGE
BUILDINGS AT GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE.
From Willis and Clark . . . . .258
29. ARMS FORMERLY ASCRIBED TO THE UNIVERSITY . 270
30. THE SCHOOLS ETC.: PLAN ABOUT 1575 . . . 272
c. b
xviii ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
FIGURE PAGE
31. THE SCHOOLS ETC. : PLAN AS AT PRESENT (1897) . 274
32. THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY : THE CATALOGUE ROOM.
By the Author, 1896 ...... 276
This view shews one of the original windows and roof
principals of 1400, the ceiling of 1600, and the book-cases
of 1731. Part of a case is shewn as broken away in order that
the original corbel for the roof principal may be seen. The
arms are those of Jegon, and are worked in plaster in the
south-west bay of the ceiling.
33. THE SCHOOLS: EAST FRONT: c. 1688. AFTER LOGGAN 278
When the east range was destroyed in 1758 the gateway
was bought by Sir John Cotton and rebuilt as an entrance to
the courtyard of Madingley Hall. At the same time the arch
was given an ugly ogee form.
34. THE LIBRARY AND SENATE-HOUSE AS PROPOSED IN
1719. From the title-page of a book printed in 1735 280
This view shews Gibbs's design for the front of the Library
and for a building to correspond to the Senate-House.
35. THE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY: EAST FRONT. By the
Author, 1897 ....... 282
36. PETERHOUSE: FOURTH AND PRESENT SHIELD . . 291
37. PETERHOUSE: BLOCK-PLAN ..... 293
38. PETERHOUSE: THE MASTER'S STAIR TURRET. From
Willis and Clark . . . . . . .294
39. PETERHOUSE : FIRST SHIELD ..... 295
40. PETERHOUSE : THE CHAPEL AND THE ORIGINAL GAL-
LERIES, ABOUT 1688. AFTER LOGGAN. From
Willis and Clark . . . . . . .298
41. PETERHOUSE: THIRD SHIELD 300
42. CLARE COLLEGE : THE COLLEGE ARMS . . . 302
43. CLARE COLLEGE : VIEW OF THE ORIGINAL BUILDINGS.
From an old painting. Reproduced, by permission
of Mr J. W. Clark, from Proceedings Camb. Antiq.
Soc. Vol. vii, /. 197 . . . . . . 304
44. CLARE COLLEGE : BLOCK-PLAN ..... 305
45. CLARE COLLEGE : RIVER FRONT, SHEWING ORIGINAL
STATE AND ALTERATIONS. From Willis and Clark 307
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT xix
FIGURE PAGE
46. CLARE COLLEGE : FRONT GATE. By the Author, 1896 309
47. PEMBROKE COLLEGE: THE COLLEGE ARMS . . 311
48. PEMBROKE COLLEGE: BLOCK-PLAN .... 313
49. PEMBROKE COLLEGE : STAIR TURRET BETWEEN THE
OLD LODGE AND THE HALL. Now destroyed.
From Willis and Clark 314
50. PEMBROKE COLLEGE : NORTH SIDE OF HITCHAM
BUILDING. From Willis and Clark . . . 317
51. PEMBROKE COLLEGE: SOUTH GABLE OF THE OLD
LODGE. Now destroyed. From Willis and Clark . 319
52. GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE: THE COLLEGE ARMS 322
53. GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE : BLOCK-PLAN . . 324
54. GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE : VIEW FROM THE
SOUTH, ABOUT 1 688. AFTER LOGGAN . . . 327
55. GONVILLE AND CAIUS COLLEGE : TOMB OF DR CAIUS.
From Willis and Clark . . . . . -330
56. TRINITY HALL : THE SECOND AND PRESENT SHIELD 333
57. TRINITY HALL: BLOCK-PLAN ..... 335
58. TRINITY HALL: FIRST SHIELD. .... 336
59. TRINITY HALL : VIEW FROM THE EAST, ABOUT 1688.
AFTER LOGGAN. From Willis and Clark . . 337
60. TRINITY HALL: THE LIBRARY. From Willis and Clark 338
61. CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE: THE COLLEGE ARMS . 343
62. CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE : BLOCK-PLAN . . . 344
63. CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE : GALLERY CONNECTING
THE COLLEGE WITH S. BENEDICT'S CHURCH. From
Willis and Clark 345
64. CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE: THE OLD HALL AND
MASTER'S LODGE. From Willis and Clark . . 346
65. CORPUS CHRISTI COLLEGE : VIEW FROM THE NORTH,
ABOUT 1688. AFTER LOGGAN .... 348
66. KING'S COLLEGE: THE PRESENT SHIELD. . . 351
XX ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
FIGURE PAGE
67. KING'S COLLEGE: PLAN SHEWING THE ORIGINAL
BUILDINGS AND THE FOUNDER'S SECOND SCHEME,
AND ALSO THE OLD SCHOOLS AND THE OLD COURT
OF CLARE HALL . . . 355
68. KING'S COLLEGE: FIRST SHIELD . . . 359
69. KING'S COLLEGE : PLAN OF THE CHAPEL AND BLOCK-
PLAN OF THE PRESENT BUILDINGS AND OF THE
DESTROYED PROVOST'S LODGE .... 365
70. QUEENS' COLLEGE: FIFTH AND PRESENT SHIELD . 373
71. QUEENS' COLLEGE: THE FIRST SHIELD . . . 374
72. QUEENS' COLLEGE: BLOCK-PLAN .... 376
73. QUEENS' COLLEGE: ERASMUS' TOWER. By the Author,
1896 . . . . -377
74. QUEENS' COLLEGE : GALLERY OF THE PRESIDENT'S
LODGE, c. 1688. EXTERIOR. AFTER LOGGAN.
From Willis and Clark . . . . -379
75. QUEENS' COLLEGE: GALLERY OF THE PRESIDENT'S
LODGE. INTERIOR. From Willis and Clark . 380
76. QUEENS' COLLEGE : SECOND SHIELD .... 382
77. QUEENS' COLLEGE: THIRD SHIELD .... 384
78. S. CATHARINE'S COLLEGE : THE COLLEGE ARMS . 386
79. S. CATHARINE'S COLLEGE: BLOCK-PLAN . . . 388
80. S. CATHARINE'S COLLEGE : THE GATEWAY. By the
Author, 1897 . . . . . . . 390
81. JESUS COLLEGE: THE PRESENT SHIELD . . . 394
82. JESUS COLLEGE : BLOCK-PLAN ..... 396
83. JESUS COLLEGE: FIRST SHIELD .... 397
84. JESUS COLLEGE : VIEW FROM THE SOUTH, ABOUT 1688.
AFTER LOGGAN. From Willis and Clark . . 399
85. CHRIST'S COLLEGE: THE COLLEGE ARMS . . 406
86. CHRIST'S COLLEGE : BLOCK-PLAN .... 408
87. CHRIST'S COLLEGE : VIEW FROM THE SOUTH-WEST,
ABOUT 1688. AFTER LOGGAN. From Willis and
Clark . . . . . . . . .411
ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT XXI
FIGURE PAGE
88. S. JOHN'S COLLEGE: THE COLLEGE ARMS . . 415
89. S. JOHN'S COLLEGE: BLOCK-PLAN . . . .417
90. S. JOHN'S COLLEGE : THE GATEWAY. By the Author,
from a photograph . . . . . .419
91. S. JOHN'S COLLEGE: THE CHAPEL TOWER, FROM
THOMPSON'S LANE. By G. M, Brimelow, 1897 . 422
92. MAGDALENE COLLEGE : THE COLLEGE ARMS . . 426
93. MAGDALENE COLLEGE: BLOCK-PLAN .... 428
94. TRINITY COLLEGE: THE COLLEGE ARMS. . . 435
95. TRINITY COLLEGE: BLOCK-PLAN .... 437
96. TRINITY COLLEGE: PART OF HAMOND'S MAP OF 1592.
From one of the original impressions in the possession
of Mr J. E. Foster ...... 442
97. TRINITY COLLEGE: NEVILE'S COURT, ABOUT 1688.
AFTER LOGGAN ....... 445
98. TRINITY COLLEGE: OBSERVATORY ON THE TOP OF
THE GREAT GATE. From Willis and Clark . 450
99. EMMANUEL COLLEGE : THE COLLEGE ARMS . . 456
100. EMMANUEL COLLEGE: BLOCK-PLAN .... 458
1 01. EMMANUEL COLLEGE: VIEW FROM THE SOUTH-WEST,
ABOUT 1688. AFTER LOGGAN. From Willis and
Clark , . . . . . . . .461
102. SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE: THE COLLEGE ARMS . 465
103. SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE: BLOCK-PLAN . . . 466
104. SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE: VIEW FROM THE SOUTH-
WEST, ABOUT 1688. AFTER LOGGAN. From Willis
and Clark ........ 468
105. SIDNEY SUSSEX COLLEGE: PART OF THE NEW BUILD-
INGS AND THE END OF THE OLD HALL. By G.
M. Brimelow, 1897 ...... 470
106. DOWNING COLLEGE: THE COLLEGE ARMS . . 472
107. SELWYN COLLEGE: VIEW FROM THE EAST. By G. M.
Brimelow, 1897 ....... 476
XX11 ILLUSTRATIONS IN THE TEXT
FIGURE PAGE
1 08. RIDLEY HALL: THE GARDEN FRONT. By G. M.
Brimelow, 1897 ....... 478
109. GIRTON COLLEGE: VIEW FROM THE SOUTH-WEST.
By G. M. Brimelow, 1897 ..... 480
no. NEWNHAM COLLEGE: THE HALL. By G. M.
Brimelow, 1897 ....... 483
in. THE UNIVERSITY PRINTING-PRESS: HOUSE OCCUPIED
BY T. BUCK, ABOUT 1625. From Willis and Clark 486
112. THE OBSERVATORY FORMERLY ON THE TOP OF THE
GREAT GATE OF TRINITY COLLEGE. From Willis
and Clark ........ 489
MAPS.
I. CAMBRIDGE, ABOUT 1445 .... after 504
II. CAMBRIDGE, AS AT PRESENT .... after 504
INTRODUCTION.
T N the work now presented to the public an attempt has
-* been made, almost for the first time, to deal in a single
volume with all that is most noticeable in the Town as well
as in the University of Cambridge. Our first idea was to
write a mere guide-book, in which a visitor should find the
usual information succinctly, and we hoped accurately, stated,
with the help of numerous plans and illustrations. But, on
second thoughts, it seemed better to deal with so interesting
a subject in a less dry and formal manner ; to prepare, in
short, a book which might still do duty as a guide, but which
might be studied at a distance from Cambridge, either by an
intending visitor, or by a student ; and which, above all, might
bring into prominence the fact which is so often forgotten,
that the history of the University and the history of the Town
are really inseparable from each other.
It has long been the fashion to imagine that the Town
has always been a mere appanage of the University ; that it
grew up, in fact, round the University, as the dwellings of
retainers might nestle at the feet of a monastery or a castle.
No notion can be farther from the truth than this ; and in
order to clear it away, as we hope, for ever, Mr Atkinson
has thoroughly investigated the whole history of the Town,
and related it with what some may be disposed to consider
xxiv INTRODUCTION
too great minuteness. I think, however, that those who give
themselves the trouble of reading this section of the book
with care, will adopt a different view; and even those who
are least disposed to take an interest in the affairs of the
Town, must recognise the important bearing they have on
a right conception of the origin of the University.
It is impossible, as pointed out below (p. 241), to fix any
exact date for the foundation of that institution ; and, since
the publication of Mr Mullinger's admirable work The Uni-
versity of Cambridge, no sane person can expect that such a
date will ever be discovered. But it is possible to point out
some reasons why Cambridge should have been selected as
a convenient resort for students. In the latest work on the
history of the Universities it is contemptuously referred to as
"that distant marsh town," 1 but the author prudently refrains
from any more precise definition of the locality. A little
research would have shewn him that the nearest marsh was
at least five miles off; and that the town, though distant,
was still important. In these days of easy communication
between all parts of the country it is difficult to realise that
Cambridge, thanks to its Great Bridge, was in the early
Middle Age the only point at which the River Cam
could be crossed by a traveller who wished to proceed
from the eastern counties to the midlands ; and that
it was traversed by one of the great roads which, whether
Roman or not, led direct from London. It possessed a
Fair which was one of the most extensive marts of the
Middle Ages, and must have made it, as a trading-centre,
a place of far greater importance than it is at present;
while, by means of the River, it drew an inexhaustible supply
of provender and fuel from the Fens and from the port of
1 The Universities of Europe in the Middle Ages. By Hastings Rashdall, M.A.
1895. ii. 349.
INTRODUCTION XXV
Lynn. I can still remember the long trains of barges laden
with coal, or heaped high with turf and sedge, which might
be seen, on almost every day, either being towed up the
stream, or floating down it empty. By this route too it was
customary to send heavy merchandize, as cheaper and on the
whole safer than by waggon along the king's highway. But,
on the usefulness of the river, I cannot do better than quote
a passage from The Foreigner's Companion through the Uni-
versities of Cambridge and Oxford, written in 1748.
The Air of Cambridge is very healthful, and the Town plentifully
supplied with excellent Water, not only from the River and Aqueduct
already mentioned, but from the numerous Springs on every Side of
it, some of them Medicinal. Nor is it better supplied with Water,
than it is with the other Necessaries of Life. The purest Wine they
receive by the Way of Lynn : Flesh, Fish, Wild-fowl, Poultry, Butter,
Cheese, and all Manner of Provisions, from the adjacent Country :
Firing is cheap : Coals from Seven-pence to Nine-pence a Bushel ;
Turf, or rather Peat, four Shillings a Thousand ; Sedge, with which
the Bakers heat their Ovens, four Shillings per hundred Sheaves:
These, together with Osiers, Reeds, and Rushes used in several
Trades, are daily imported by the River Cam. Great Quantities of
Oil, made of Flax-Seed, Cole-Seed, Hemp and other Seeds, ground
or press'd by the numerous Mills in the Isle of Ely, are brought up
by this River also ; and the Cakes, after the Oil is press'd out, afford
the Farmer an excellent Manure to improve his Grounds. By the
River also they receive 1500 or 2000 Firkins of Butter every Week,
which is sent by Waggon to London : Besides which, great quantities
are made in the Neighbouring Villages, for the Use of the University
and Town, and brought in new every Morning almost. Every
Pound of this Butter is roll'd, and drawn out to a Yard in Length,
about the Bigness of a Walking-cane ; which is mention'd as peculiar
to this Place. The Fields near Cambridge furnish the Town with the
best Saffron in Europe, which sells usually from 24 to 30 Shillings a
Pound.
Further, in estimating the fitness of Cambridge as the seat
of a University, the neighbourhood of the great monasteries of
xxvi INTRODUCTION
the Fenland must not be forgotten. Monasteries, especially
those which obeyed the Rule of S. Benedict, sent student-
monks regularly to the Universities during the historic
period ; and certain colleges were founded and maintained
by their liberality. I need not in this place do more than
mention Durham College (now Trinity College), and Wor-
cester College, at Oxford ; and Magdalene College at
Cambridge. We know too, from the account-rolls of the
monastery of Ely still preserved in the muniment-room of
the Cathedral, that students were maintained by that House
at Cambridge. As monasteries usually acted in concert, in
obedience to the resolutions of a General Chapter of the
Order to which they belonged, it is at least probable that
other Houses, as for instance Croyland, Ramsey, Thorney,
Peterborough, Bury S. Edmunds, would emulate the example
of Ely, and maintain student-monks at Cambridge. Is it
not therefore at least probable, that a similar course of action
might have been pursued at an earlier time, and that one
or other of the great Houses mentioned above might have
taken the lead in selecting Cambridge as a place in which
a miniature Paris might be established ? For, in studying
the early history of the English Universities, it must always
be remembered that Paris was " the Sinai of instruction "
throughout the Middle Ages ; and students who could not
resort to it set themselves to work to imitate it as closely
as they could.
We speak of the origin of a University as though we had
merely to find out when something which has always been
the same as it is now came into being. In doing so we
forget that a butterfly does not differ from a chrysalis more
completely than a modern University does from its medieval
prototype. The present meaning of the word University is
wholly modern. We understand it to signify "a School in
INTRODUCTION XXV11
which all the Faculties or branches of knowledge are re-
presented " ; but in the Middle Ages it signified
a number, a plurality, an aggregate of persons. Universitas
vestra, in a letter addressed to a body of persons, means merely
'the whole of you'; in a more technical sense it denotes a legal
corporation...; in Roman Law it is for most purposes practically the
equivalent of collegium. At the end of the twelfth and beginning of
the thirteenth centuries, we find the word applied to corporations
either of Masters or of students ; but it long continues to be applied
to other corporations as well, particularly to the then newly formed
Guilds and to the Municipalities of towns ; while as applied to
scholastic Guilds it is at first used interchangeably with such words
as ' Community ' or ' College.' In the earliest period it is never
used absolutely. The phrase is always 'University of Scholars,'
'University of Masters and Scholars,' 'University of Study,' or the
like. It is a mere accident that the term has gradually come to be
restricted to a particular kind of Guild or Corporation, just as the
terms 'Convent,' 'Corps,' 'Congregation,' 'College,' have been
similarly restricted to certain specific kinds of association. 1
The term by which a University was denoted in the
Middle Ages was Studium, or, in the thirteenth century,
Sttidium Generate. This term implied three characteristics :
(i) that the school attracted students from all parts ; (2) that
it was a place of higher education, that is, that one of the
higher Faculties, Theology, Law, Medicine, was taught there ;
(3) that such subjects were taught by a considerable number
of Masters 2 . Lastly, long established Studia of good repute,
such as Paris or Bologna, obtained what was called the jus
ubique docendi: in other words, one of their Masters had the
right of teaching in all other Stttdia without any further
examination.
It is easy to understand how the two words Universitas
and Studium became synonymous. The teachers and the
learners in the Studium, when incorporated under a definite
. J Rashdall, ut supra, \. 7. 2 Ibid. p. 9.
xxviii INTRODUCTION
constitution, would naturally be addressed, in their corporate
capacity, as Universitas, the whole of you ; and thus gradually
the term which was intended to apply to persons changed its
signification and denoted the place.
Let us try, by a slight exercise of the imagination, to
transport ourselves to that remote period, some eight centuries
ago, when what we call a University began in this place. In
every monastery there was a Master of the Novices ; and in
every Cathedral School there was a Master who taught the
scholars. Conceive such a person on his travels for, thanks
to the abundance of monasteries, travelling was as easy in
the Middle Ages as at the present day and coming to
Cambridge at a time when the town was full of strangers
attracted by the Great Fair, Not unwilling to turn an honest
penny, he offers a course of lectures ; they find ready listeners;
and when they are over, he is entreated to come back next
year himself, or to send a substitute. And so the instruction,
begun at haphazard, goes on ; a room is hired ; perhaps a
teacher from Paris occupies the lecturer's chair; the hearers
increase in number ; the neighbouring monasteries, always
ready to take up a popular movement, associate themselves
with the desire for a wider instruction than their own schools
can provide. The work, begun as a temporary expedient,
becomes permanent ; one teacher is no longer sufficient for
the crowd of learners. A second and a third are engaged
to assist the first, and to work under his direction. Gradually,
out of this directing teacher, a permanent official is evolved
who, in later times, is spoken of as the Rector (i.e. the guiding
teacher) or eventually as the Chancellor. Finally, some of the
local scholars become themselves sufficiently well-informed to
act as teachers ; separate lines of study are entered upon, or,
as we should now say, the body specialises in some particular
direction ; gradually an organisation of the usual type is
INTRODUCTION XXIX
arrived at ; the place gains reputation as a Studium, and the
little body of volunteers is saluted as Universitas vestra.
This rough outline of what I conceive to have taken place
is borne out by the known history of the University Buildings.
A plot of ground was not given to the University for building
on until 1278 (p. 271), but we know that before that time the
teachers of the day made use of certain houses on or near the
site of what is now the Library. The names of some of these
Schools, as they were called, have survived, as, ' School of S.
Margaret/ ' Gramerscole,' ' Artscole,' ' Law School,' ' Theology
School.' Each was probably the lecture-room of a teacher.
These teachers were called indifferently Master, Professor,
Doctor terms which were absolutely synonymous 1 . A
Bachelor, in our modern sense, did not exist in the Middle
Ages. "Bachelorship," says Mr Mullinger, "did not imply
admission to a degree, but simply the termination of the
state of pupildom : the idea involved in the term being, that
though no longer a schoolboy, he was still not of sufficient
standing to be entrusted with the care of others." 2
Student-life in the Middle Ages has been treated of with
much thoroughness and ability by Mr Mullinger, and since he
wrote, by Mr Rashdall. To their pages we must refer those
who desire fuller information than we have been able to give
below (Chapter XL). The subject is full of interest, but the
materials are provokingly scanty ; and even when they have
been thoroughly mastered, the result is to a certain extent
fragmentary and disappointing.
When we try to form an idea of what the medieval
undergraduate was like, we must begin by forgetting his
modern descendant. The medieval student was little better
than a boy probably not more than thirteen or fourteen
years old. He must have had a certain preliminary education,
1 Rashdall, ut supra, p. 21. 2 Mullinger, ut supra, p. 352.
XXX INTRODUCTION
not merely in reading, writing, and grammar, but in Latin,
for lectures were given in that language. In the early days
of the University he enjoyed complete liberty from all
discipline and control ; for before Hostels were instituted, or
at any rate before they were placed under the control of a
Master, the 'clerks/ as they were sometimes called, lived
where they pleased, and as they pleased, with but little
danger of interference from anybody. Human life was not
specially valuable in the twelfth and thirteenth centuries, and
even a homicide or a murder seems to have been treated as a
trifling indiscretion which the Town had better leave to the
University ; and which the University dealt with as a matter
which should be hushed up rather than punished.
With the establishment of Hostels a new era must have
set in ; and it is to be regretted that we know so little about
these institutions. Of one only at Cambridge, namely,
Physwick Hostel, have we any detailed account. This,
translated from Dr Caius' History, I proceed to transcribe :
Physwick Hostel, situated opposite to the north side of Gonevile
and Caius College, from which it was separated by a road, now forms
part of Trinity College. It was not let out to hire, as the other
hostels were, but was the private property of Gonevile and Caius
College. It was afterwards converted into a hostel (hospitiuni) or
rather into a tiny (pusillutn) College, into which, as into a colony,
they could banish the too great abundance of their younger members.
To provide for their management and instruction they set over it two
Principals, called respectively External and Internal, of whom the
former resided in the College, the latter in the Hostel. The former
was a Fellow of the College chosen by the master; the latter was
elected by the ' commensales ' of the Hostel and the Exterior
Principal conjointly. Both of them lectured in the Hostel and
presided as moderators at the exercises of the students, for which
they received and divided between them 16 pence quarterly from
each resident in the Hostel. The like sums were paid to the
Exterior Principal for chamber rent, but applied to the use of the
College. In those days more than thirty or forty ' commensales '
INTRODUCTION xxxi
resided in that Hostel. It stood and flourished for many years, and
put forth many eminent and learned men, of whom some were
selected for College honors, and became resident therein, others
were called away to fill offices of state '.
With this may be compared the account which Mr
Rashdall gives of the College of Spain at Bologna, derived
from the Statutes as revised in 1377.
The College shall consist of thirty scholars eight in Theology,
eighteen in Canon Law, and four in Medicine. The scholars held
their places for seven years, except in the case of a Theologian or
Medical student who wished to stay up and lecture as a Doctor...
The qualification for election was poverty, and competent grounding,
' at least in Grammar.' In the case of the Theologians and Medical
students, Logic was also required, and if they had not heard Philosophy
before, their first three years of residence were to be devoted mainly
to that Faculty. An entrance examination was held, and the College
was at liberty to reject nominees who failed to satisfy these require-
ments. Every scholar received daily a pound of moderate beef or
veal or other good meat with some ' competent dish,' the larger part
at dinner, the smaller at supper. Wine, salt, and bread were at
discretion ; but the wine was to be watered in accordance with the
Rector's orders. A portion of the allowance for meat might be
applied by the Rector to the purchase of salt meat or fruit. We may
charitably hope that the College availed itself of this provision on
Feast-days and on the Sunday before Lent, when the above men-
tioned ' portions ' of meat were doubled. On Fast-days the ordinary
allowance was to be spent on fish and eggs. At a ' congruous time '
(not further defined) after dinner and supper respectively, the
College re-assembled for ' collation,' when drink was ' competently '
administered to every one. Besides commons, each scholar received
every autumn a new scholastic ' cappa, sufficiently furred with sheep-
skin,' and another without fur, and with a hood of the same stuff
and colour as the cope, at the beginning of May ; and there was an
annual allowance of twelve Bologna pounds for candles, breeches,
shoes, and other necessaries 2 .
It is probable that only a few of the students who matricu-
lated remained at Cambridge long enough to take the Master's
1 Willis and Clark, ii. 417. - Rashdall, ut supra, i. 200.
xxxii INTRODUCTION
degree. In fact, unless they proposed to become teachers of
others in their turn, such a degree would have been useless to
them. Most students probably left as soon as they had got
as much knowledge as they wanted, or as they could afford
to pay for. The details of the educational course, and the
changes through which it has passed what has survived of
medieval practice and what has perished need not be
discussed here. The subject is too wide and too technical for
such a work as this. It belongs to the Archaeology of
Education rather than to the History of Cambridge. Those
who wish to enter into it fully should consult the works
already mentioned, or Mr Rouse Ball's History of the Study
of Mathematics at Cambridge.
The Colleges, as explained below (p. 243), were intended
at first for teachers rather than for learners. The notable
exception was King's Hall (now absorbed in Trinity College)
which was founded in 1337 by King Edward the Third, for
thirty-two scholars, each of whom was to be at least fourteen
years old, and of sufficient proficiency in grammar to study
logic or any other faculty which the warden might, after
examination, select for him. There can be no doubt,
therefore, that the inmates of this House were to be what we
now call undergraduates. But in the rest of our collegiate
foundations this was not the case, at least at first. The class
of " pensioners," namely, those who were willing to pay a
fixed sum (pensio) for their board and lodging, did not make
its appearance for two centuries or so after the promulgation
of the Statutes of Merton College, Oxford the Regula de
Merton, as it was called by which the College system was
inaugurated. When the pensioners became numerous the
need for further accommodation within the College precincts
was felt ; ranges of chambers were built, and the Hostels
were either absorbed or deserted.
INTRODUCTION XXX111
It is probable that most persons, when they enter one of
our stately quadrangles, imagine that they have before them
a structure erected within a few years on a definite plan,
conceived from the beginning, and handed to the Founder by
some distinguished architect, as happens now-a-days when a
new College comes into being. Nothing can be farther from
the truth than this very natural view. A unity of plan may un-
questionably be discovered in our College courts ; but it was not
thought of until long after the foundation of the earlier ones.
The Collegiate system was a new invention in 1264.
Nobody could foresee whether it would be a success or a
failure ; and therefore nobody not even the Founder of it
committed himself to a large and costly range of buildings.
As Professor Willis has well remarked :
The buildings required in the earliest colleges were very simple,
consisting of little else than chambers to lodge the inhabitants, a
refectory or hall, and a kitchen with its offices to prepare their food.
Their devotions were performed in the parish church, their books
were kept in a chest in the strong-room, and the master, in the
majority of them, occupied an ordinary chamber, so that the chapel,
the library, the master's lodge, and the stately gateways, which
supply so many distinctive features in the later colleges, were wholly
wanting in the earlier ones ; and it is very interesting to watch them
taking their place in succession in the quadrangles. The attempt to
erect a quadrangle on a settled plan, containing the chambers and
official buildings disposed in order round about the area, in which
form all these early colleges now present themselves, was not made
till long after their establishment. For, in fact, until the collegiate
system had fairly stood the test of a long trial, it was hardly possible
to determine what arrangement of buildings would be best adapted
for its practical working, while the continual growth and improvement
of the system in each successive foundation demanded enlargements
and changes. At both Universities the inhabitants of the earliest
colleges were in most cases lodged at first in houses already in
existence, purchased by the founder together with the ground on
which they stood 1 .
1 Willis and Clark, ut supra, iii. 248.
c. c
XXXIV INTRODUCTION
For example, at Peterhouse (p. 293), our earliest college,
the scholars were lodged for about 130 years in the dwelling-
houses (hospicia) which Bishop Hugh de Balsham found
standing on the site. The College was founded in 1284, the
Hall was built in 1290, and probably a Kitchen and Buttery
at the same time, or soon afterwards. But the quadrangle
was not begun till 1424, by erecting the range of chambers on
the north side, next to the churchyard of S. Mary the Less ;
and nearly forty years passed by before it was completed.
At Clare Hall both Richard de Badew and the Lady Clare
used buildings which they found on the site ; and the
quadrangular form (p. 304) was not completely adopted until
after the fire of 1521 \ At Pembroke, founded 1346 (p. 312),
the scholars were at first lodged in houses standing on the
site ; but the quadrangle was unquestionably erected not long
afterwards, and is remarkable as the first at Cambridge in the
plan of which a chapel was included. At Gonville Hall,
when it was moved to its present position in 1353, the
scholars were lodged in houses on the north border of the
site. The chapel was built in 1393 ; the hall in 1441 ; but
the east side, completing the quadrangle, in 1490, or 140
years after the removal 2 . At Trinity Hall the founder built
the Hall and the range next the street. The north range
was added soon afterwards (in 1374), but the chapel was not
built until near the end of the following century. At Corpus
Christi, on the other hand, the whole quadrangle (of the older
College) was built between 1352 and 1377. It consisted of
three ranges of chambers, on the east, north, and west sides,
and of a hall and kitchen on the south side. No chapel was
intended, and indeed, would have been needless, having
regard to the close proximity of S. Bene't's Church, and the
fact that the College had been founded by Townsmen, whose
1 Willis and Clark, ut supra, p. 254. ' 2 Ibid. p. 255.
INTRODUCTION XXXV
beneficiaries would not clash with their fellow-townsmen
when they met at church. The buildings of this House have
been but little altered, and give an excellent idea of the
primitive appearance of a small medieval college.
With the foundations noticed above the medieval period
of the Cambridge Colleges may be said to close. It was
not until nearly a century afterwards (in 1446) that Queens'
College was founded ; and by the time that that event took
place the collegiate system had become an assured success.
It was possible, therefore, to adopt a definite plan for the new
foundation.
In this plan (p. 376) the court is entered through a gate-
way with four turrets placed near the centre of the side next
the street. The treasury or muniment-room is on the first
floor over the gate. The chapel is on the north side of the
court, with the library westward of it on the first floor. The
east side of the court to the right and the left of the gate, and
the whole of the south side, are occupied by chambers. The
west side contains, in the following order, from north to
south, the kitchen, the butteries and pantry, the through-
passage to the grounds beyond, the hall, and the parlour
or combination-room, over which is the Master's lodging,
approached by a separate staircase on the west side. There
is now a second court, between the first court and the river.
It contains on the west side a building apparently coeval
with the first court ; and on the north side a gallery, forming
part of the Master's lodging, built subsequent to the western
building and to the cloister on which it is supported.
Now where did this plan come from ? We have seen it
already at Pembroke College (p. 313), and at Clare Hall;
but when it appears at Queens' College it meets with more
dignified treatment, so to speak ; and is subsequently re-
produced at Christ's College and at S. John's College.
XXXVI INTRODUCTION
The entrance-gateway, a feature peculiar to the archi-
tecture of Cambridge, was first seen at King's Hall in 1426.
The gate then erected may still be seen, moved from its
original position, and somewhat mutilated in the journey,
against the west wall of Trinity College Chapel. It was
evidently much admired when first built, and was copied at
the colleges of King's (in its first position), Queens', Christ's,
S. John's, and even at King's Hall itself, the second gateway
of which (built 1535), is now the principal entrance to
Trinity College. Such gateways would also have been em-
ployed again by King Henry the Sixth, had his marvellous
design for his enlarged college ever been completed. Un-
fortunately we do not know whose ingenuity we ought to
thank for this brilliant innovation. The medieval system of
architecture, where the artist was merged in the constructor,
is singularly destructive of individual reputation.
The origin of the general disposition of the collegiate plan
can be more easily traced. As Professor Willis was fond of
shewing, it is derived directly from the mansions of the
nobility, by whom in the I4th century the severity and
gloom of the castles was being gradually discarded, and
replaced by the quadrangular country-houses, some examples
of which still survive. The plan which most nearly ap-
proaches that of Queens' College is that of Haddon Hall.
Indeed Professor Willis used to say that he was almost afraid
of shewing them together, because he felt sure that his
audience would say that he had " cooked " them.
It is curious that the monasteries should have contributed
so little to the organisation of the colleges. It might have
been reasonably expected that a body of celibate persons,
like the society of a college, would have borrowed its
organisation from the Monastic Orders, one of which, that of
S. Benedict, could point to some seven centuries of successful
INTRODUCTION XXXvii
existence before the Rule of Merton was so much as thought
of. But this was not the case. The whole collegiate system
was intended to counteract monastic influence ; and to
provide education which monks should not direct, and by
which they should not benefit. There was no objection to
their attendance at lectures, or to their taking a University
degree ; but the colleges were closed to them. Si quis
\scholarium~\ in religionem intraverit cesset omnino in eius
persona exhibitio prczdicta, says Walter de Merton 1 . In
consequence, except in certain technical matters, as for
instance the Library, collegiate statutes are not borrowed
from monastic rules or customs ; and the same separation
between the two bodies would seem to extend to the
buildings. The distinctive features of monastic life, the
cloister, and the dormitory in which all the members of the
community slept together, are absent from collegiate archi-
tecture ; and the whole arrangement, as mentioned above, is
a deliberate copy of a plan arranged for the secular as
opposed to the religious life.
J. W. CLARK.
26 July, 1897.
1 Statutes, 1274, Chap. 14. Commiss. Doc. (Oxford), i. 27.
THE TOWN
CHAPTER I
SITUATION AND EARLY HISTORY
The frontier of the Iceni. Defensive works across the pass ; Cambridge
Castle. The Romans. The name Cambridge. The Saxons. The
Danes. Condition of the town before the Conquest ; the Gild of
Thanes. Growth ; probably from the union of two towns ;
S. Benedict's Church.
IN early times the eastern part of Britain, held by the large
and powerful tribe of the Iceni, was separated from the rest of
the island by a natural barrier extending from the Wash
to the Thames, a distance of about eighty miles. The
northern half of this barrier was formed by the Fens, the
southern part by forest These two almost impassable ob-
stacles were nearly continuous but not entirely so, for between
them there was an interval consisting partly of open pasture
land, partly of chalk downs. 1 In this interval, and on the
margin of the fen, lies the town of Cambridge (fig. I, p. 3). The
only approach to the country of the Iceni the East Anglia
of later times was along the road known as the Icknield (or
Icenhilde) Way, which traversed the above-mentioned interval,
and ran over the chalk downs between the forest and fen in a
north-easterly direction through Ickleford, Royston, Ickleton,
1 The limits of the fen can easily be the change from forest to bare open
traced ; the edge of the forest roughly country perhaps determined the present
coincided with, and was no doubt de- boundaries between the counties of
termined by the edge of the boulder Cambridge and Essex, and Cambridge
clay which forms the soil of Essex; and Suffolk.
2 I. SITUATION AND EARLY HISTORY
Newmarket and Icklingham. The pass which at its narrow-
est point was not more than five miles wide was defended by
a remarkable series of British earthworks which cross it at
right angles. These ditches, extending from fen or marshy
land to a wooded country, and crossing the narrow open
district which lay between, probably formed the best defence
that could have been devised against the chariots which
played so important a part in primitive warfare, and against
the cattle-lifting which was so frequently its object.
These earthworks are nearly parallel to one another and
run in a north-westerly and south-easterly direction. Each
consists of a bank and a ditch. The ditch is in most cases on
the south-west side of the bank, a position which shews that
the defence must have been made by the people on the east
against those on the west. 1 Where the ditch is to the
north-east the works are probably due to the people of the
west. As now one tribe, now the other was the stronger,
each would advance its boundary and throw up a line of
defence with the ditch on the farther side. 2
The whole of the southern part of the present county,
therefore, was, in British times, the frontier district of the
Iceni. Though crossed by valleys giving good pasture, and
bordering on the fen-land where fish and fowl were abundant,
its exposure to raid and warfare must have checked any per-
manent settlement or continuous prosperity. At Cambridge
itself the ancient earthwork known as Castle Hill may belong
to the British period, but on this point authorities are divided.
1 See a paper by Professor Ridge- The bank is 1 8 feet above the level of
way (Proc. Camb. Antiq. Soc. vn. 200) the country, 30 feet above the bottom
in which the author shews that the of the ditch and 1 2 feet in width at the
defeat of the Iceni by the Romans top ; the ditch is 20 feet wide. These
under P. Ostorius Scapula in A.D. 50 measurements are exceeded in some
as described by Tacitus (Annales, xn. parts.
31) may, with great probability, be - The so-called 'Roman Road' is
referred to the neighbourhood of one considered by Professor Hughes to be
of these dykes, probably either the not a road but one of these dykes
Devil's Ditch or the Fleam Dyke. (Cambridge Review, 6 May, 1885).
The former is about eight miles long.
SITUATION 3
Hitherto the Castle has been generally accepted as British,
while, some maintain that it is at least as likely to be Saxon,
Scale of Miles
31234567*
ll'alker GrBoiitaUsc.
FIG. i. MAP OF THE NEIGHBOURHOOD OF CAMBRIDGE.
The vertical shading indicates Fen, the diagonal shading Boulder Clay.
but the evidence on either side is far from conclusive. In
British times it lay on a tribal frontier line, and a frontier
4 I. SITUATION AND EARLY HISTORY
town in those times was probably not the important place
it became at a later period. The existence of the great
Dykes suggests reliance on them as a defence rather than on
a border fortress. It may be argued, therefore, that the
situation would tell against, rather than in favour of its
choice as a military position. On the other hand, the Castle
Hill may have formed a useful auxiliary to the dykes in
defending a ford.
The same uncertainty exists as to the character of the
Roman settlement. While the whole district is thickly
strewn with remains shewing that it was extensively occupied
by the Romans, there is still no proof that they established
at Cambridge a camp or station, 1 or that there was here a
town of importance. The commonly accepted identification
of Cambridge with the Camboritum of the Romans appears
to rest on no surer ground than a resemblance between the
two names, and this resemblance is an illusion. The form
Camboritum is of the fourth century, whilst Cambridge is not
earlier than I4OO. 2
The name of the town was Grantanbrycge in A.D. 875 and
in Domesday Book it is Grentebrige. About 1142, we first
meet with the violent change to Cantebruggescir (for the
county), the change from Gr- to C- being due to the
Normans. This form " lasted, with slight changes, down to
the fifteenth century. Grauntbrigge (also spelt Cauntbrigge in
the name of the same person) survived as a surname till 1401.
After 1142 the form Cantebrigge is common; it occurs in
Chaucer as a word of four syllables, and was Latinised as
Cantabrigia in the thirteenth century... Then the former e
dropped out ; and we come to such forms as Cantbrigge and
Cauntbrigge (fourteenth century) ; then Cdnbrigge (1436), and
Cawnbrege (1461) with n. Then the b turned the n into m,
giving Cambrigge (after 1400) and Caumbrege (1458). The
1 Professor Hughes, C. A. S. vm. logical Society, 23 Jan. 1896 (Cam-
-205, and Camb. Rev., 20 May, 1885. bridge University Reporter, n Feb.
2 Professor Skeat, Cambridge Philo- 1896).
NAME. CASTLE 5
long a formerly aa in baa, but now ei in vein, was never
shortened." 1 The old name of the river, Granta, still sur-
vives. Cant occurs in 1372* and le Ee and le Ree in the
fifteenth century. In the sixteenth century the river is
spoken of as " the Canta, now called the Rhee" 2 and later we
find both Granta and the Latinised form Camus.* Cam,
which appears in Speed's map of 1610, was suggested by the
written form Cam-bridge, and " is a product of the sixteenth
century, having no connection with the Welsh cam, or the
British cambos, crooked." 4
To return to the Castle Hill. The remains of a fosse and
vallum which appear to have formed part of a parallelogram 5
have always been accepted as Roman, and the straight roads
which converge on this point would certainly appear to bear
out the theory. But, however this may be, there is ample
proof that the site was occupied by the Romans, or Romano-
British, and after them by the Saxons. It is to the Saxon
period that the construction of the Castle Hill is attributed
by Professor Hughes, who considers it a thoroughly charac-
teristic English Burh. He thinks that most probably it was
constructed in the ninth century as a defence against the
incursions of the Danes ; 6 and during that and the following
century Cambridge is said to have been sacked by them
more than once. The last occasion was after the battle of
Ringmere, near Ipswich. In that great fight the East
Anglians were defeated and all fled "save only the men of
Cambridgeshire, who stood their ground and fought valiantly
to the last." After the battle, the conquerors advanced and
reduced Thetford and Cambridge to ashes. 7
The Danes, however, have left but little evidence of
1 Skeat, ut supra. breastworks thrown up by Cromwell.
2 Dr Caius' History, 1573, quoted 6 The whole question of the age of
by Willis and Clark, it. viii. these earthworks is discussed by Pro-
3 Camden, 1586. fessor Hughes in Proc. Camb. Antiq.
* Skeat, ut supra. Soc. Vol. vin. (1893), 173.
6 But we must be careful not to 7 Freeman, Conquest of England,
confound these with the remains of the (2nd ed.) I. 344.
6 I. SITUATION AND EARLY HISTORY
settlement in the immediate neighbourhood, if we judge by
the place-names in the locality. By far the greater number
are purely Saxon. Some few may have a British origin, but
the Danish names which cover the map of Norfolk and
Suffolk almost cease on the borders of Cambridgeshire.
With the amalgamation of conquerors and conquered, how-
ever, comes the dawn of definite history. "It is from the
time of the Danes that we may trace the beginnings of our
towns. The towns were indeed little better than more
thickly-populated villages, and most of the people lived by
agriculture ; but still the more populous places may be
regarded as towns, since they were centres of regular trade.
The Danes and Northmen were the leading merchants, and
hence it was under Danish and Norse influences that the
villages were planted at centres suitable for commerce, or
that well-placed villages received a new development." 1
It is with this new chapter in the national history that
Cambridge emerges from obscurity. Eminently a well-placed
village, it was one of the first to develop into an English
town. Under new conditions which allowed advantage to be
taken of its excellent situation as a commercial town, it
begins to rise into a place of importance. Its position at
the head of a waterway communicating with the sea, is a
factor in the history of Cambridge the importance of which
it is hardly possible to exaggerate. The river was " the life
of the trarficke to this Towne and Countie." 2 In direct
communication with the Continent by means of the river, and
on the only or almost the only line of traffic between East
Anglia and the rest of England, Cambridge became an
important distributing centre, and the seat of one of the
largest fairs in Europe, for it was probably at this early
period that the fame of Stourbridge Fair began to spread and
to bring prosperity to the town. This early commercial
reputation is now forgotten. Trade has been diverted into
1 Cunningham, The Gr<nvth of Eng- 2 Address to King James I., 1614-15
lish Industry and Commerce, I. 88. (Cooper, Annals, in. 70).
GILD OF THANES 7
other channels, the great fair has declined, and the renown of
the schools has eclipsed the older fame of the town. But
none the less Cambridge probably owes her trade, her fair,
her schools, and her very existence to the sluggish little river
that connects her with the port of Lynn.
Much direct evidence as to the condition or importance of
Grantbrycge in the ninth and tenth centuries will not be
expected. Coins were struck here by King Edward the
Martyr in 979, and by more than one of his successors in
the following century. Early in the eleventh century it was
governed by its twelve lawmen or ' lagemanni,' 1 its Thanes
had formed themselves into a Gild, and comparing it with
other towns at the time of Domesday Survey, it is said to
have had a "fairly advanced municipal life." 2
The Gild of Thanes of Cambridge had some points in
common with other Anglo-Saxon Gilds whose ordinances are
extant. 3 It gave help to members in distress, and the
brethren attended the funeral of any one of their number who
died. If a brother lay ill at a distance from home, the other
members went to fetch him, and they did the like if he died.
For neglect to attend on these and similar occasions, a
member was fined a measure of honey. But the Cambridge
Gild differs in one important respect from others of this
period. It made elaborate rules for compensation in case of
assault or murder. If a retainer \cnihf\ drew his weapon
upon any one, his lord \Jilaf ord\ had to pay i, and to get
what he could out of his man, the Gild helping him. If any
one killed a gild-brother he had to pay 8, or if he refused
the whole Gild would be avenged on him. If a gild-brother
killed a man accidentally, each gild-brother subscribed to
compensate the dead man's relations at the following rates :
if the slain were a man holding twelve hides of land each
1 Stubbs, Comt. Hist. I. 100, 102. Abbotsbury, Woodbury, and Exeter,
2 Cunningham, I. 3, 83, 88. and the Association of Bishop Wulfstan
3 The other Anglo-Saxon Gilds of and his comrades,
which we have record are those of
8 I. SITUATION AND EARLY HISTORY
subscribed half a mark ; if he were a ceorl each gave two
oras; if he were a Welshman \_Wylisc, a foreigner, a man of
another town or district 1 ] each gave one ora. A gild-
brother who killed any one with guile had to bear the
consequences, and any gild-brother who did eat or drink
with the murderer had to pay 1 unless he could call his
two bench-comrades to witness that he knew him not. Every
member had to take an oath of fidelity to the Gild. A fine
of a measure of honey was imposed on a brother who insulted
another, and in case of dispute, the society would support
him who had most right 2 Such is the general tenor of the
laws ; by what means they were enforced on those who were
not members of the Gild we do not know.
Of the situation of the town and of the manner of its
growth we must now say a few words.
We have seen that a settlement existed on the west bank
of the river at a very early period. Whatever the date of the
stronghold round which it clustered, it is, at all events, earlier
than anything now existing on the east side. The origin and
growth of this east quarter, now much the largest, still remains
to be explained. It has been supposed by some that the old
town on the west bank gradually spread across the river, but
it seems to be more probable that an independent village on
the east bank gradually stretched towards the other until the
two joined, and the very fact that they had been two was
forgotten. The existence of a community on the east side
of the river before the Conquest seems to be proved by the
style of S. Benedict's Church, the early parts of which are very
characteristic of pre-Norman architecture. The situation of
S. Benedict's Church so far from the Castle end of the town
probably indicates a separate village rather than one con-
1 But possibly referring to the rem- A transcript and translation in parallel
nants of the British population which columns are given by Thorpe in Diplo-
lingered in the fens. matarium Anglicum sEvi Saxonici,
2 Translations are given by Kemble 61. In the latter no attempt is made to
in The Saxons in England, i. 513, and translate one or two of the most obscure
by Cooper in A nnals of Cambridge, 1.15. passages.
tinuous town. Domesday Book records that at the time of
the Survey and in the days of the Confessor the town was
divided into ten wards, and it appears probable, from the
known position of some of those wards, that all were situated
near the Castle and on the west bank of the river, 1 and that
such settlement as existed on the east side was not considered
as part of the town. Castle End was called ' the Borough '
within the memory of persons still living. 2
On the other hand the east part, round S. Benedict's
Church, has not, in historic times, been distinguished by a
separate name. The old name of Free School Lane, Lort-
burgh 3 Lane, is the only name that has been preserved
which can be thought to suggest a separate village, but this
is more probably a personal name.
If the old town had gradually spread across the river we
should expect the quarter near the bridge to shew some signs
of being older than the other parts of the town. But this is
not what we find. Neither the oldest buildings, nor the
markets, nor the hithes are near the Great Bridge. Of the
hithes, one the only quay that survives did certainly adjoin
the bridge, but its complete separation from all the others
1 It is stated that Ward I. was to. We see, then, that Wards I., II. and
reckoned as two in the days of King VI. and perhaps Ward IV. were close
Edward, but that twenty-seven houses together and near the Castle. As the
had been destroyed to make room for numbering of the wards would presum-
the castle which the Conqueror had ably be made with reference to their
built. No account is given of Ward situation the inference is that the
VI. It appears that the twenty-seven other wards were also on the west bank
houses that had been pulled down were of the river.
in Ward VI., and that the remainder 2 'The Borough boys' is a nick-
were henceforth reckoned with Ward I. name still remembered as being applied
(Bryan Walker, Camb. Antiq. Soc. to the men of the Castle End by the
Communications, Vol. V.). Hence we dwellers on the east side of the river,
may conclude that Wards I. and VI. A public house with the sign of "The
adjoined one another. We are also Borough Boy" still stands in North-
informed in Inquisitio Eliensis (507) ampton Street.
that Ward II. was called Brugeward, 3 There are a great variety of
i.e. Bridge-ward, and that there was a spellings of this name : Lurteburghlane,
church in Ward IV. From the charac- Lorteburghlanestrate,Lurtheburnestrate,
ter of the earliest work in old S. Giles' and many others.
Church, it might be the one referred
10 I. SITUATION AND EARLY HISTORY
rather strengthens the theory of amalgamation than other-
wise. In the Middle Ages the greater number of the hithes
were between the Hospital of S. John (now S. John's College)
and the house of the Carmelites (now part of Queens'
College). The part immediately to the east of the bridge
indeed seems to have remained unoccupied till a later period
than other parts. The Hospital of S. John was placed on a
large area which was described, early in the twelfth century,
as waste ground. The Jewry lay between the old Church of
All Saints and the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, a fact
which alone almost proves that that site was, at the time of
the settlement of the Jews, a suburban district lying between
the two towns. The part between the Jewry and the river is
laid out with a regularity not observable in other parts of the
town ; this suggests a comparatively late settlement.
Other indications point to the same conclusion. The
more modern eastern half of the town contains the markets,
with the Tolbooth, or Town Hall. Considering how fixed such
things were in the Middle Ages, it is more probable that they
still occupy their original sites than that they were moved
from the Castle End. The fact that this quarter was enclosed
by a ditch, apparently for the first time in 1215, seems to
shew that it was at that time a comparatively new town. 1
Each of these indications considered by itself is slight, and
perhaps they are not very convincing when all taken together,
but they must be given and accepted for what they are worth.
If the existence of a separate village on the east side of
the river be allowed, it is natural to connect it with S. Bene-
dict's Church. This building is clearly pre-Norman, and ex-
hibits a strongly marked contrast to those buildings which
are known to have been built by the Normans, as for instance,
the Churches of S. Peter and S. Sepulchre.
This church, then, probably served a township separate
and distinct from that on the west bank of the river, and
situated on a level headland more convenient for trade and
1 Rotnli Litlerarum Claitsarutn (Hardy, 234 b.).
s. BENEDICT'S CHURCH
ii
especially for a trade requiring wharves. Houses then sprang
up along the roads leading to the bridge and to Barnwell,
leaving the spaces between them unoccupied save as gardens.
And when the two villages did become united they seem to
FIG. 2. THE TOWER OF S. BENEDICT'S CHURCH.
have formed a straggling incompact town, with some of its
parishes stretching far out into the country, a long way
beyond the ditch which King John caused to be made for its
defence.
FIG. 3. ARMS GRANTED IN 1575.
CHAPTER II
THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY
Cambridge a town in royal demesne. Grant of farm of town to bur-
gesses. Monopoly of river trade and jurisdiction of town, about
1118. Farm raised from ^45 to ^60, 1190. Charter granting a
Gild Merchant and jurisdiction in civil cases, 1200-1 ; the Gild
Merchant. The right to elect a Provost, 1207. Election of coroners,
1256. The University ; disputes with town, riots. Charter to
University, 1267-8. Petition for leave to hold property, 1330.
Town records. The Four-and-Twenty. Burgesses in Parliament,
1295. Attack on University, 1381. Loss of some franchises.
Maces. Seal.
THE first and perhaps the most important consideration in
the municipal history which we propose to sketch in the
present chapter is the fact that Cambridge was a town in
ancient or royal demesne. In other words, the jurisdiction
was vested in the king himself, not in any other lord. The
history of English towns is chiefly the history of a long
struggle on the part of the burgesses to get the jurisdiction
THE FARM OF THE TOWN 13
into their own hands, and this struggle was generally longer
and more severe, and, it must be confessed, to us more
interesting, in the towns on feudal or ecclesiastical estates
than in those in ancient demesne. The king had less
interest than other lords in the petty details of local govern-
ment, and less concern in retaining authority in small matters,
and he was therefore more ready to delegate to the burgesses
themselves, for an adequate consideration, his jurisdiction and
the profits thence arising. This delegation was always made
by charter.
The first step towards independence was a financial
change. The town had no separate existence from the
county of which it merely formed a hundred. The first
move towards separation was a separation of the finances.
The contribution from the town to the royal exchequer had
been originally merged in that due from the whole county.
The burgesses got the sheriff to agree to accept a fixed sum
from the town apart from the rest of the county. Their next
object was to have the privilege of making their payments
direct to the king. Hitherto they had been collected by the
sheriff of the county, who had farmed the taxes from the
king, paying him a sum agreed upon beforehand, and making
what he could out of the taxpayer. This system answered
the king's purpose very well. It ensured to him or was
supposed to ensure the punctual and regular payment of
the taxes, and it saved him the trouble of collecting them ;
and there can be little doubt that it suited the sheriff equally
well, and that he and his assistants all made their profit on
the transaction. But how hardly it bore on the burgesses is
shewn by their anxiety to escape from the clutches of the
middlemen and to make their payments direct to the king.
The sheriff had no lack of means wherewith to enforce his
demands and retaliate on the burgesses if they were not
sufficiently prompt in their payments. We read in Domesday
that it was complained of the Norman sheriff of Cambridge-
shire that he had deprived the burgesses of their common
14 II. THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY
pasture, " that he had required the loan of their ploughs nine
times in the year, whereas in the reign of the Confessor they
lent their ploughs only thrice in the year, and found neither
cattle nor carts." 1
The efforts of the burgesses of Cambridge, as of other
towns, were therefore next directed towards ridding them-
selves of this part, at least, of the authority of the sheriff.
Early in the reign of King Henry I., they petitioned that the
town might be granted to them at a fixed rent equal to that
hitherto paid by the sheriff. This privilege, which many
other towns were at that time striving to obtain, is the first
recorded step towards municipal liberty in Cambridge. Its
importance is shewn by the large sums which the burgesses
were prepared to pay on receiving the grant, in addition to
continuing the same payment as the sheriff had made.
The amount agreed upon appears to have been 45 a
year. We find that all through the Middle Ages the farm
of Cambridge was frequently given as a dower to the queen.
The earldom of Cambridge and Huntingdon has been almost
invariably held by a member of the royal family. What
connection with royalty these facts indicate, or how and
when such, if any, connection arose, we cannot say.
The next charter, " so far as its provisions are intelligible,
seems to have been intended to secure to this borough a
monopoly of the trade of the county, as also to provide for
the inhabitants the benefit of a domestic judicature." 2 As
such the burgesses doubtless considered it a concession of the
1 Cooper, Annals, I. 18. one take toll elsewhere but there; and
2 Cooper, Annals, I. 25, where the whosoever in that borough shall forfeit,
following translation is given : let him there do right ; but if any do
HENRY, King of England, to otherwise, I command that he be at
Hervey Bishop of Ely and all his right to me thereupon before myjustices
Barons of Grantebrugeshire, greeting; when I command thereupon to plead.
I prohibit any boat to ply at any shore WITNESS, the Chancellor and Milo
of Grantebrugeshire, unless at the shore of Gloucester.
of my borough of Cantebruge, neither Mr Cooper considered that this
shall carts be laden, unless in the charter was granted about 1118.
borough of Cantebruge, nor shall any
JUDICATURE 15
greatest importance. Indeed these two liberties, to hold the
farm of the town and to exercise the jurisdiction within it,
were the privileges on which the burgesses set the greatest
store. Almost all subsequent grants were enlargements or
confirmations of these two rights. But these and other privi-
leges were forfeited at the death of the king, and at the
beginning of each reign the town was at great pains and cost
to get its charters confirmed. It appears that the privileges
were not renewed by Henry II. till towards the end of his
reign, and that in the meantime the sheriff had held the town
at farm. 1 In 1185 the burgesses paid to the king the sum of
300 marks and a mark of gold, or 309 silver marks in all, to
have the farm ; the old monopoly of the river trade is said to
have been renewed at the same time. Richard I. renewed the
grant in the second year of his reign, when the amount to be
paid into the Exchequer appears to have been raised from
45 to 60 a year, but the town had also to pay a heavy fine
for the grant of the privilege.
The former grants were renewed by King John at the
beginning of his reign, and during the next few years two
important charters were obtained by which the liberties of the
town were greatly enlarged. The first of these is dated at
Geddington the 8th January I2OO-I. 2 Its most important
provisions are: (i) That there should be a Gild Merchant;
(2) That all civil cases between burgesses should be heard
within the borough. The first of these grants demands more
than a passing notice.
1 HENRY, by the grace of God therefore I command that the aforesaid
King of England, Duke of Normandy burgesses and all theirs you keep and
and Aquitaine, and Earl of Anjou, To maintain as my own, and that none do
his Justices, Sheriffs, and all his Ministers injury, molestation, or hurt to them in
and faithful People, greeting : KNOW anything, for I am unwilling that they
YE, that I have delivered at farm to should answer to anyone thereof, except
my burgesses of Cambridge my town of to me, at my Exchequer. WITNESS,
Cambridge, TO HOLD of me in chief Roger, son of Remfridus, at Kenil-
by the same farm which the Sheriff is worth. (Cooper, Annals, I. 28. 1185.)
now accustomed to render, that they 2 Cooper, Annals, I. 31.
may answer at my Exchequer. AND
l6 II. THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY
The members of the Gild Merchant were to be free of all
toll on crossing dyers and bridges or on selling goods, and of
tolls within the fair and Without, through all the King's lands,
saving always the liberties of the City of London. These
tolls were paid by all other burgesses, and exemption from
them was the great privilege of the members of the Merchant
Gilds which were being set up at this time in so many
boroughs. 1 The grant of a Gild Merchant was often equiva-
lent to the grant of a monopoly in trade to a favoured few.
" The words ' so that no one who is not of the Gild may trade
in the said town, except with the consent of the burgesses,'
which frequently accompanied the grant of a Gild Merchant,
expresses the essence of this institution. It was clearly a
concession of the exclusive right of trading within the
borough." 2 But membership of the Gild was probably
open to every burgess or freeman on payment of an entrance
fee, and on taking oath to observe its statutes and to pay
' scot and lot,' that is, tolls and rates, towards the municipal
expenses. Those who were " foreign " to the town were only
able to obtain trading rights by purchasing them from the
Gild, and none but freemen were permitted to sell by retail
at ordinary times ; but even so the monopoly must, in effect,
have ceased. The chief duties of the Gild would be protecting
and furthering trade interests, regulating matters connected
with industry, and perhaps giving assistance to members in
need.
"The meetings of the Gild Merchant were generally called
1 According to Dr Gross, the earliest jority at a later period. Dr Gross also
distinct references to the Gild Merchant shews how a borough, in applying for
appear in a charter granted to Burford, a charter frequently copied the terms of
about a century before this. In the one granted to some other town. The
meantime some five and twenty boroughs Cambridge charter of 1201 was, he
had obtained the privilege. Some im- says, copied from that obtained by
portant towns such as Bury St Edmunds, Gloucester in 1199, while that was in
Canterbury, Derby, Gloucester, Ipswich, part an exact transcript of the charter
Lynn, and Yarmouth formed a Gild of Richard I. to Winchester. (Gross,
Merchant at almost exactly the same Gild Merchant.}
time as Cambridge, but the great ma- 2 Ib. I. 43.
THE GILD MERCHANT \J
'gilds' or 'morning-talks'.. ..The number held yearly varied in
different places and in different periods ; annual, semi-annual,
and quarterly meetings seem to have been the most common.
At these assemblies new members were admitted; punishment
was inflicted for breaches of the statutes; and new ordinances
were made. Each Gild had its own peculiar enactments,
defining its privileges and prescribing rules of conduct for
its brethren. At the regular meetings, or on days specially
appointed, there was much eating, drinking, and merry-making ;
'drynkyngs with spiced cakebrede and sondry wynes, the
cuppes merilly servyng about the hous.'"
The Gild Merchant having control over trade and
industry, soon became, and for some time continued to
be, an important department of the municipal government.
But the Gild was in some places, though not in Cambridge
apparently, gradually supplanted by the craft gilds, which
rose in number and power in the fourteenth century. The
work which it had formerly done was now performed by the
gild of each craft. Craftsmen were freely admitted into the
Gild Merchant, which probably included, even in later times,
the whole body of burgesses, while at Cambridge, by an
ordinance passed in the middle of the sixteenth century, all
freemen were obliged to be members of the Gild and to attend
its meetings. 2 As its active life, for trade purposes, ceased,
the Gild was, to a great extent, merged in the Common
Council of the town, though it never became actually identical
with it. The offices of the two corporations were frequently
filled by the same persons. The very hall of the Gild was
transferred to the town ; lent at first to the Common Council
for its meetings, it became in course of time town property.
It was thus that the town hall so frequently came to be known
as the Guildhall.
Even when the utility of the Gild Merchants ceased with
regard to trade, they still retained the position of religious
gilds, or became a particular phase or function of the
1 Gross, i. 32. 2 Cooper, Annals, II. i-
C. 2
1 8 II. THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY
municipality, in its character, namely, of a trade monopoly,
or they gradually dwindled down to a periodical civic feast
of the privileged few. 1 It must be confessed that it was
the latter fate which befel the Gild Merchant of Cambridge.
Some religious ceremonies connected with it lingered on and
were revived at the beginning of Queen Mary's reign, when
it was ordained by the Common Council "that the Guylde,
called Guyld Merchant, shall be kept agayne as yt hathe been
used in tymes past, on the Sondaie after Relique Sondaie, and
that Mr Maior shal be Alderman thereof for this yere, and the
Tresorers Masters thereof." 2 Clearly the Gild Merchant had
now come to be thought of as nothing more than an annual
church-going, followed probably by a feast.
To return to the days of King John. The principles of
local government were developing rapidly, and the second of
the two important charters granted by that king conferred
on the burgesses no less a privilege than the right to elect the
chief officer of the town for themselves, " whom they will and
when they will." 3 It also gave, in perpetuity, the farm of
1 Gross, I. 161. command that the aforesaid Burgesses
2 Cooper, Annals, II. 93. Relic and their heirs shall have and hold the
Sunday was the third Sunday after aforesaid Town with all its appurte-
Midsummer Day. nances well and peaceably, freely and
3 JOHN, by the grace of God, quietly, entirely, fully and honourably,
King of England, Lord of Ireland, in meadows and feedings, mills, pools
Duke of Normandy and Aquitaine, and and waters, with all their liberties and
Earl of Anjou, TO our Archbishops, free customs; WE GRANT also to
Bishops, Abbots, Earls, Justices, Sheriffs, them that they shall make of themselves
Provosts, and all our Bailiffs and faith- a Provost whom they will and when
ful People greeting : KNOW YE that they will. WITNESS William Bishop
we have granted, and by this our of London, Peter Bishop of Winchester,
Charter have confirmed to our Burgesses John Bishop of Norwich, Josceline
of Cambridge the town of Cambridge, Bishop of Bath, Geoffrey Fitzpeter
with all its appurtenances, TO HAVE Earl of Essex, the Earl of Aubermale,
AND TO HOLD it for ever of us and Wm. Briwerr, Geoffrey de Nevill,
our Heirs to them and their Heirs ; Reginald de Cornhill. GIVEN by the
RENDERING therefore yearly at our hands of Hugh Wells, Archdeacon of
Exchequer the ancient farm, to wit Wells, at Lambeth, the eighth day of
forty pounds white and twenty pounds May in the eighth year of our reign,
tale of increase, for all services by their (Cooper, Annals, I. 33. 1207.)
hands at two Exchequers in the year. The two Exchequers were held at
WHEREFORE we will, and firmly Easter and Michaelmas.
THE RIGHT TO ELECT A MAYOR 19
the town, which had formerly been held only during the life
of the king by whom it was granted. Nevertheless the
burgesses continued to ask each new king to confirm their
charters and were ready to pay him handsomely for so doing.
Some time during the next thirty years the earlier title of
Provost was changed for that of Mayor. The earliest extant
document in which this title occurs is a commission issued by
King Henry III. in 1235, "empowering the Sheriff, together
with Matthew Grescyen and Henry de Coleville, by view of
the mayor and twelve approved men of the town, to appease
all controversies, so that the poor should not be too much
aggrieved, nor the rich too much spared." 1 The contro-
versies, whatever they were, had led to the seizure by the
king of the town franchises, which were only restored on
payment of a fine of 100 marks. In 1256 the liberties were
further enlarged. The election of coroners, with duties much
more various than at present, was granted to the burgesses,
and regulations as to arrest for debt and other matters were
made.
From the period we have now reached, namely, the
middle of the thirteenth century, the quiet progress of the
town history is interrupted by a rival body, which rapidly
grew in importance, and was destined for a very long time to
be a thorn in the side of the burgesses. The birth of the
University is lost in obscurity, and fable of course assigns to
it a very remote antiquity. But there appears to be no
distinct reference to it in any known document earlier than
the thirteenth century, and the Hundred Rolls shew that
even in 1278 it cannot have been a numerous or wealthy
body. But from that period the growth of its privileges was
rapid, and overshadowed to some extent those of the town.
Henceforth the charters obtained by the two bodies are in
great part concerned with their antagonistic liberties. There
were at this time no colleges, the scholars being quartered in
the houses of the townsmen. It was, therefore, impossible for
1 Cooper, Annals, I. 42.
20 II. THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY
the University authorities to exercise much control or maintain
much discipline among the crowd of schoolboys under their
charge, or to protect them from fraud or extortion, and there
was every opportunity for discord and rioting. At a time,
too, when the burgesses were bent on enlarging their liberties
in every direction, and especially on obtaining complete
jurisdiction within the town, a rival jurisdiction was set up by
removing offending scholars from the power of the Mayor
and handing them over to the Chancellor. The ill feeling
which was always smouldering occasionally broke into flame,
as in 1261, when a free fight took place, in which houses
were plundered and the records of the University were
destroyed. Sixteen townsmen were executed for the part
they had taken in the riot. A similar outbreak occurred in
1322, but these risings were slight compared with the Peasant
Revolt of 1381, which, at Cambridge, was directed chiefly
against the University.
In consequence of this state of affairs a charter was
granted to the University in 1267 8, and, though it is not
recorded, a similar charter must have been given to the town,
providing for the maintenance of public order as well as for
the regulation of prices. The University charter commands
that there shall be two aldermen and also four of the more
discreet and lawful burgesses of the town to assist the mayor
and bailiffs in preserving the King's peace, and in keeping
the assizes of the town, and in searching out malefactors and
the receivers of thieves. Every parish was also to elect two
men of the parish who should swear that they will once a
fortnight enquire if any suspected person lodges in the parish.
Another provision is directed against regrators, or those who
bought goods merely to sell them again at a higher rate.
Regulations are also made for the assise of bread and beer.
The test was to be made twice a year, within fifteen days of
the feast of S. Michael, and about the time of the feast of
S. Mary in March. Every baker should have his seal, and
every brewer should shew his sign, so that those whose bread
QUARRELS WITH THE UNIVERSITY 21
or beer lacked weight or quality might be known. Those
brewers and bakers who offended for the third time were
condemned to the pillory or tumbrel. Wine was to be sold
indifferently to clerks as to laymen. Finally the town should
be cleansed and kept clean, and the town ditch should be
cleared out, for doing whereof two of the more lawful bur-
gesses in every street were to be sworn before the Mayor. 1
The cleansing and the paving of the streets was for long
after this a trouble to both the University and town, and not
seldom a source of discord between the two bodies.
The charters of Henry III. were renewed in 1280 by
Edward I., and in 1313 Edward II. again confirmed them
and granted some new privileges.
Edward III., early in his reign, renewed the charters
given to the burgesses by his predecessors, on payment of a
reasonable fine, and also granted their prayer that they
might have notice of any petition presented by the Univer-
sity. Though the burgesses cautiously prefaced this request
with the statement that the divers franchises and privileges
of the two communities of clerks and laymen were not
repugnant " as the law might suppose," yet the privileges of
the University must almost always have been gained at the
expense of the town, and we can hardly doubt that the object
of the burgesses in asking for such notice was that they
might oppose the petitions of the rival body. The town at
the same time put forward a third and more important
prayer, namely, " That whereas they held the town at fee
farm of the King at 62 per annum, towards payment
whereof they had no certain means, except by small tolls and
customs from strangers who came into the said town with
merchandise on the market-day, which were nearly done
away with by the franchises granted to great lords and their
tenants ; they therefore prayed that they might approve
(enclose) the small lanes and waste places in the town." The
answer to this petition was, " That as to approvement, good
1 Cooper, Annals, I. 50.
22 II. THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY
men should be assigned to inquire by strangers if the King
might grant their prayer, without damage to him or of
others ; and that on the return of the inquest, the King would
be advised." 1 In this petition the corporation, it would ap-
pear, for the first time sought licence to hold property, and it
is unfortunate that we do not know the final decision of the
King. A few years later (1347) the town Treasurer's ac-
counts (the earliest extant) shew receipts 2 from various shops,
but when these came into possession of the corporation does
not appear.
From the middle of the fourteenth century the materials
for the history of the town become fuller and more interesting.
Ordinances drawn up by the Town Council and the accounts
presented annually by the Treasurers give some valuable
details of the system of government. The earliest volume of
the town records, known from old time as " The Cross
Book," also dates from this period. It begins with a Kalen-
dar, slightly illuminated, and some extracts from the first
chapters of the Gospels of S. Luke and S. John. These
leaves may possibly have formed part of a volume used in
the Middle Ages for swearing the members and officials of
the Corporation. 3 They are followed by a collection of
ordinances and miscellaneous matters down to the time of
Henry VI.
The town had now had Mayors or Provosts for nearly a
hundred and fifty years, but the manner of their election and
of that of the Council and Officers, and to what extent these
originally represented the popular will, does not appear. In
1344 the Town Council made an ordinance prescribing the
manner of election. Whether this was a new departure or
simply re-stated the old custom, we do not know. It appears
that the commonalty had considerably more voice in the
matter than was usual in the boroughs at that period. The
whole of the new council was elected by two men, one of
1 Cooper, Annals, I. 84. 1330. 3 Historical MSS. Commission,
2 Amounting to 99 shillings. First Report, Appendix, 99 b.
THE ADMINISTRATION 23
whom was appointed by the outgoing mayor and council, and
the other by the commonalty. It would, therefore, appear
that each of these two interests would be equally represented
in the new council, while the new mayor would have a casting
vote. 1 The council thus constituted was for long known as
"The Four-and-Twenty," and the same mode of election
continued, with little variation, till the Municipal Reform
Act of 1835.
By the middle of the fourteenth century, the town had
reached complete municipal independence, and we are able
to see with some clearness the working of the system of
government which it had developed. 2 The fully developed
staff as it survived at a later time, and as, in its main elements,
it probably existed about the fourteenth century, consisted of
a Mayor, four Bailiffs, twelve Aldermen, twenty-four Common
Councilmen, two Treasurers, four Counsellors, two Coroners,
Town Clerk and Deputy Town Clerk ; these appear to have
formed the executive. Other officers were, the High Steward,
the Recorder, Deputy Recorder, and Chaplain. The servants
or inferior officers were the Sergeants-at-Mace, the Waits or
town musicians who also acted as watchmen, the Pindars who
1 The following translation of this sworn, shall enter the chamber, and
ordinance is given in Cooper's Annals there shall elect twelve approved and
of Cambridge, I. 96. BE IT REMEM- lawful men of the commonalty afore-
BERED that on the day of election of said, in the Guildhall being on the
mayor and bailiffs of the town of Cam- same day; which twelve shall choose
bridge in the eighteenth year of the to themselves six, and then the afore-
reign of King Edward the Third after said eighteen, in the presence of the
the Conquest, of the assent of the whole commonalty, shall swear that they will
commonalty of the town aforesaid, IT elect a certain mayor, fit and sufficient
WAS ORDAINED AND APPOINT- for the government of the town afore-
ED, that for the future the election of said, four bailiffs, two aldermen, four
mayor and bailiffs, aldermen, council- councillors, and two taxors of the town
lors and taxors of the town aforesaid, aforesaid, fit and sufficient, for whom
be under this form, to wit, that one they will answer. AND this constitu-
approved and lawful man of the com- tion was recited and confirmed to endure
monalty by the mayor and his assessors for ever, so that those two first choosing
sitting on the bench, and another like the twelve, be not in the election,
unto him, by the said commonalty, 2 For a list of all the charters granted
shall be elected. Which two men being to the town see Chapter vi.
24 II. THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY
empounded stray cattle and had charge of the commons, and
the Cook.
The powers possessed by this governing body were
ample ; indeed they were in theory not very far short of
those exercised by the Town Council of to-day. They in-
cluded jurisdiction in a large class of cases both civil and
criminal, the collection of the rent due to the king, police,
paving and cleaning the streets, the control of the commons,
registration of apprentices, the assise of bread and beer, the
control of the market and the regulation of trade generally.
The expenses incurred by the Four-and-Twenty in the exercise
of these duties were met by a special house tax called High
Gable rent, a corruption of Hagable 1 or Hagafol, a land
tax of a similar nature known as Landgable, by customs on
all goods brought into the town, rents of booths in the market,
by fees for the admission of freemen, fees and fines arising
from the civil jurisdiction and from the registration of the
transfer of property, 2 and by other small dues. Some of the
offices from which profits arose were farmed out to individuals
by the corporation, as in earlier times the taxes had been
farmed out by the king. The holders of these farms were
armed with small maces as warrants of their authority. The
paving was paid out of special tolls on goods brought into
the town for sale, 3 and the provision of soldiers and boats in
time of war out of a rate levied for the purpose ; neither
could be imposed but by permission of parliament ; the other
principal items of expenditure under ordinary circumstances
are suggested by the duties which we have mentioned as
being undertaken by the Four-and-Twenty. But in addition
to these there was a heavy annual bill for presents, for with
presents of all kinds and to all sorts, both high and low, did
the Mayor grease the wheels of the somewhat cumbrous
Municipal wain. A few examples may be given here. In
1 Cooper, Annals, I. 18. 3 Cooper, Annals, I. 62.
2 Granted by Charter, 1385.
BURGESSES IN PARLIAMENT 2$
the town treasurer's accounts, we find, for instance, the
following :
John Dengayne, sheriff, for the new gift to him that he would
not take victuals, ^3; to the undersheriff for the same, half a mark.
To Sir William de Thorp, justice, 40^.; to his clerk, zs.
To the messenger of the Lord the King, coming for the armed
men, 40^.
To a messenger carrying the writ for a ship, 2S. '
Rewards to undersheriff and sheriff's clerk for their good be-
haviour towards the burgesses, 2os. 2
In a present, namely, one pipe of red wine by the mayor and
burgesses of this town, given this year to the Lords de Tiptoft and
de Powys, 66s. 8</. 3
Item, payed to John Lyne at the commandment of Mr Maior
for a present yoven to my lord Crumwell, vij".
Item, for a Reward to my lorde Crumwells players, ujs. ^d. *
Two dishes of marmylade & a gallon of ypocrasse, ix.y. \\i]d. 5
To the King's poett, xs. 6
Something may here be said of the representation of the
borough in Parliament. Cambridge was one of the towns
which returned members to the great Parliament called by
Edward I., in 1295, the first in which the boroughs generally
had been represented. The town chose Sir John de Cam-
bridge and Benedict Godsone. Sir John de Cambridge was
a man of note in the town, and afterwards became a justice of
the King's Bench. He was twice Alderman of the Gild of
Corpus Christi, a post held subsequently by John Duke of
Lancaster. He was evidently a man of means, for he pre-
sented to the gild a very valuable piece of plate, and to the
college of Corpus Christi, which the gild had founded, a large
number of houses. He himself lived in one of the very few
houses in the town which were built of stone. The electors
were probably, as they were at a later period, a select body of
twelve burgesses. The Members were no doubt each paid the
1347- 2 1426. 3 1436-
1540- 5 1561. 6 1614-5.
26 II. THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY
shilling a day for their expenses required by Act of Parlia-
ment ; the town treasurer's accounts for this period have un-
fortunately not been preserved, but at a later time they contain
entries for this account. In 1425, for instance, the sum of ^8
is charged for the expenses of William Weggewode and Roger
Kyche, burgesses of Parliament, for 80 days, at 1 2d. each per
day. The same charge is repeated in other years, and in 1427
it is specially ordained that the payment of members shall be
limited to a shilling a day, and the rate remained the same
in 1549; in 1563 it was raised to two shillings a day. 1 In
the year 1424 the members had been allowed two shillings,
but the town appears to have been engaged at about this
time in the important work of obtaining a renewal of its
charters from John, Duke of Bedford, the young king's
guardian. We find a shilling charged for wine at the house
of William Weggewode, then representing the town, " in the
presence of the Mayor and other burgesses, occupied about
business touching the town," and the treasurers also deliver
to William Weggewode "for the confirmation of the King's
Charter, to wit of green wax, 4." 2 In the last year of the
reign, the Town Council forbade the election of any person
who was not a resident within the town, upon pain of for-
feiture of 100 shillings to the treasurers of the aforesaid town,
by every burgess who shall take upon himself to act contrary
to the ordinance aforesaid. 3
Although Parliament itself had legislated on the subject,
the mode of electing members of Parliament was determined
by each town in its own way. The Town Council of Cam-
bridge in 1452 ordain "that the two burgesses of the
Parliament should be chosen by the most part of the
burgesses in the Guildhall at the election, and not one for
1 The last payment of which we colour of the seal appended to the
have record was made in 1660-1. process for the recovery of them. Ib.
(Cooper, Annals, III. 493.) I. 178.
2 A Charter of Green-wax was a 3 Ib. i. 211, 1460. An Act of
grant of fines, issues, and amerciaments, Parliament to this effect was passed
etc. The name was derived from the 1417-
ELECTION OF BURGESSES 27
the bench by the Mayor and his assistants, and another by
the commonalty, as of old time had been used : and that
none thereafter should be chosen burgesses of the Parliament,
unless resident and inhabitant within the town." l About a
century later the system was changed and the mode of
election was similar to that in use for municipal offices.
The Mayor and the Four-and-Twenty chose one man and
the commonalty another; these two elected, from the
various wards, eight burgesses whose duty it was to elect
the members. 2 The two electors originally chosen by the
Mayor and commonalty had to take oath "that they were
in no case laboured, by the Mayor or any other person, to
choose any special person to be of the election." 3
In 1556 a very important change was made. It was
agreed by the Mayor, Aldermen, and Four-and-Twenty that
the next election of Burgesses in Parliament should be in
the accustomed manner, except that the man who had hither-
to been chosen by the commonalty should be chosen by the
Four-and-Twenty, the Bailiffs, the Treasurers, and those who
had borne the office of Bailiff or Treasurer, and that no
commoners should be called to the election. " This ordein-
ance to stande for this onely tyme upon triall and prove what
quietnesse may ensue hereof." 4 Burgesses were elected
accordingly but it does not appear what quietness did ensue
or how long the ordinance remained in force.
The system adopted at the Parliamentary and Municipal
1 Cooper, Annals, I. 205. Ragge; for the market ward Richard
2 Ibid. I. 422. Corporation Com- Brasshey, W m Gryffyn; for the highe
mon Day Book. Tuesday after Epi- ward John Norman, Harry Osbourne;
phany, 1544-45. for the Preachers ward Christopher
MEMORANDUM that the same Taylor & Will Pratt; w ch viij have
daie & yere, for y e eleccion of the Bur- chosen for Burgessys of Parlyament,
gesses of the Parliament, The Mayor & for the Parlyament to come, theys two,
his Assystants for y c bench have namyd viz. :
one manne, viz. John Rust; And the M r THOM 8 BRACKYN,
Commonaltie have chosen one man, M r SYMON TRUE,
viz. John Fanne; w ch two men, have 3 Ibid. n. 44.
chosen viij men, viz. for the Bridgge * Ibid. II. 108.
Ward Will m Richerdson cowper, Will m
28 II. THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY
elections appears to have given the Burgesses an equal share
with the Four-and-Twenty in the choice of representatives.
But there are not wanting indications that as time went on
the occasions on which the popular voice might make itself
heard became less frequent. The general tendency of English
municipal history towards an oligarchical form of government
by a close corporation, appears, though perhaps in a modified
form, in our own borough. But if the elections were ever
popular even in the widest sense of the word as it was then
understood, they were by no means so in a modern sense.
Votes were strictly limited to the ' burgesses ' or freemen, as
they were till the reforms of the present century, and the only
question is to what extent even the burgesses had a share in
the elections, the commonalty or ' mean people ' being rigidly
excluded. But we hear very little of popular tumults or
risings against authority. At the end of the thirteenth
century indeed it is recorded that the poor complained to
the king of the exactions of the rich who levied tolls upon
them without reasonable cause, and, in the middle of the
sixteenth century, riots occurred here as in other parts of
the kingdom, on the enclosure of commons. But on the
whole the Four-and-Twenty appear to have given the mean
folk little cause for complaint.
The great factor in this harmony was probably the constant
presence of a common enemy in the University to which we
have already alluded. The feeling which subsisted between
the two bodies is shewn by the character which the general
rising of 1381 assumed at Cambridge. The energy of the
mob was chiefly directed against the University, 1 and es-
pecially against books and documents and all evidences of
privileges and titles to property possessed by the University.
Late on a Saturday night they assembled at the Tolbooth,
the Mayor, it is said, being present and approving their
1 But partly also against the collec- Lancaster. Powell, Rising in East
tors of the Poll Tax (see below, Chap. Anglia in 1381.
iv.) and the retainers of the Duke of
THE PEASANT REVOLT 29
action, when it was agreed that the house of the bedell of
the University should be destroyed, and the bedell himself, if
he were found, should have his head cut off. The first part
of the resolution was carried out, and the rabble then pro-
ceeded to Corpus Christi College and Great S. Mary's Church,
breaking into both and taking away all charters, writings and
books. On the following day they forced the University
authorities to execute deeds and to seal them with the
common seal, renouncing all their privileges. They com-
pelled the Masters of Colleges to deliver up their charters and
letters patent and burnt them in the Market Place. The riot
still continued on the Monday, till Henry le Spencer, Bishop
of Norwich, marched out of Rutlandshire with a few men-at-
arms, and attacked the mob, killing some and taking others
prisoners. Cambridge was one of the towns excepted from the
general pardon granted to the rebels in most parts of the
kingdom. All the town franchises were seized and forfeited.
After due enquiry certain of them were returned, but the fee-
farm was raised from 101 marks to 105 marks, and some
privileges were transferred permanently to the University.
Henceforth the Chancellor was to make the assise of bread
and beer and wine, the survey of weights and measures,
enquiry as to forestallers and regrators and other matters
connected with the sale of victuals. In all these things
the Mayor and bailiffs should not interfere, but should therein
humbly aid and attend the Chancellor.
These quarrels dragged on through centuries. Charges
were made before the king by either side ; compositions
were drawn up defining the duties and powers of each ; the
rivals were *at loggerheads again before the ink was dry ;
arbitration was attempted by the first Edward before he
became king, by the Lady Margaret, by Henry VIII. that
of the latter was of a somewhat severe order only to fail.
But the battle, in the end, died out. As the complicated
jurisdiction of the Middle Ages became simplified, as the
students were withdrawn more into college buildings, and
3O II. THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY
as manners softened, the riots, the pillage and burnings, the
petty quarrels and endless litigation dwindled into nothing
more serious than a ' town and gown ' row, of which the
"Tom Thumb Riot" of 1846 is perhaps the most striking
modern example.
We have sketched the gradual increase of authority dele-
gated by the king to the corporation, and we must now say
something of the symbol of that authority, namely the Mace.
The Mace, as the outward sign of his power, accompanied the
Mayor on all public occasions. By it he shewed that he
acted on behalf of the king. Whenever the king visited the
town the Mace was immediately delivered up to him, when he
would touch it with his hand and return it to the Mayor.
Unfortunately that want of reverence for antiquities as such,
which was so remarkable in our forefathers, frequently led
them to destroy their old maces and get new ones which they
no doubt thought much smarter and more fashionable. 1
How many times the Cambridge maces underwent this
process we do not know, but the five at present in use
date from the first half of the eighteenth century. The
Great Mace has an iron rest which supports it in a nearly
upright position. This rest, which is ornamented with a
silver-gilt escocheon, is unique, and is therefore of some
interest, but the maces themselves are of the usual form
with arched crowns, and are of no great artistic merit. 2
1 In 1564, when Queen Elizabeth 5 inches long, and weighs nearly 156
was about to visit the town the Trea- ounces. The head is divided into four
surers paid " to Thomas Hutton Gould- compartments containing (i) the rose
smithe for mendinge of the greate mase and thistle, (2) the fleur-de-lis, (3) the
and gildinge it, xx 8 ." In 1610 we find harp, each surmounted by a crown
the charge, " Item, for the great nyice between the letters A R, (4) the arms of
new making, xiiij u . vj 8 ."; and in 1612 the borough; the cover of the head
"Item, for makinge of the mases new, bears the Royal Arms. The Rest is of
xiiij 1 '." iron with a silver gilt escocheon which
a The great Mace and Rest were weighs about 25 ounces. The four
given to the town in 1710 by Samuel smaller maces are all alike and are very
Shepheard, jun., of Exning, one of the similar to the great mace, but have the
Members of Parliament for the Borough. initials GR instead of A R, and the
The Mace is of silver gilt about 4 feet arms of Hanover are introduced into
MACES.
SEALS
There is, however, a small mace of copper-gilt which is
very elegant (fig. 4). Although of the
time of King Charles I., it is quite
medieval in character. The bowl
or head originally the handle knob
is cup-shaped, but broad and low
compared with the later maces. The
handle has the three projecting
plates with which the head was
originally armed. The plate which
covered the top of the bowl and
displayed the Royal Arms has un-
fortunately been lost. The bowl
bears the devices C, R, a rose, and
an arched crown, and its rim is or-
namented with a cresting of Maltese
crosses and fleur-de-lis. This mace
was probably one of those used
by some of the inferior officers of
the town as the symbol of their
authority.
The earliest mention of the
mayor's official seal occurs in the
middle of the fourteenth century.
At what date it was first used we
do not know, but in I349 1 it is
affixed at the request of the Gild of
Corpus Christi to a deed executed
by the Gild, because it was better
known than their own. 2 In the following century a new
FIG. 4. SERGEANT'S MACE.
Time of Charles I.
the royal shield. They were given in
1724 by Thomas Bacon, Member of
Parliament for the borough, and are
engraved with his arms. All the maces
and the Rest were made by Benjamin
Pyne. (C. A. S., Old Cambridge Plate.}
1 Yet in 1381, three persons repre-
senting the town in an enquiry made
by Parliament, on "being asked if they
had authority under the common seal
of the town, replied in the negative,
saying the town had no common seal."
Cooper, Annals, \. 123.
2 The seal is about the size of a
penny piece, and is inscribed SIGILLUM
MAJORATIS VILLE [CANTEBRIGIE].
32 II. THE RISE OF THE MUNICIPALITY
seal (fig. 5, p. 33) of very beautiful design was made by order
of the Four-and-Twenty. 1 It is somewhat similar to the
earlier one in general design, but instead of the arms of
England being repeated in two shields with a lion in base
as supporter, there is one escocheon of France modern and
England quarterly, supported by two angels kneeling.
The inscription is S. COMUNITATIS VILLE CAN-
TEBRIGE. 2 In 1471 a seal was in use which resembled
that of 1349." This seal was eventually superseded by one
bearing the arms granted to the corporation in 1575 by
Robert Cooke, Clarencieux, on his visitation made in that
year (fig. 3, p. 12). Like the arms granted by Cooke to
other corporate bodies, it is inferior in design to the earlier
coats. He also added, as he did in the case of Trinity Hall,
the anachronism of a crest. This coat of arms continues
in use at the present time. It is now affixed to documents
by embossing the paper itself without the use of wax ; the
press by which it is applied is secured by three padlocks as
directed in the ordinance of 1423. We give the terms of the
grant below, omitting some wordy passages which are not
very much to the purpose. 4
TO ALL AND SINGULAR, as well nobles and gentils as
others, to whom these presents come, Robert Cooke, Esquire, alias
Clarencieux, Principal Herehaut and King of Arms, of the south
east and west parts of this realm of England, from the river Trent
southward, sendeth greeting in our Lord God Everlasting AND
The device consists of a bridge, em- commonalty, should be sealed there-
battled, of four arches, over a river; with. And that the seal of the office
on the middle of the bridge a tower of mayor should remain in the custody
and spire, on either side of which is an of the mayor for the term of his office."
escocheon bearing the lions of England, Cooper, Annals, I. 171.
each escocheon supported by a lion in 2 This seal is affixed to a document
base, standing on the battlements of the dated 29th Sept. 1434.
bridge. (MS. Cole, xn. 127 b.) 3 The shields bear the anns of
1 On the Thursday after the Nati- France and England quarterly, and are
vity of the Virgin, 1423, it was resolved, supported in base by two lions sejant.
"That there should be a common seal The inscription is SIGILLU MAJORITA-
ordained, which should be kept in the Tis VILLAE CANT." (MS. Cole, xn.
treasury under the keys of the mayor i27b.)
and aldermen; and that all leases of 4 It is given at length in Cooper's
houses, and all matters touching the Annals of Cambridge, II. 330.
ARMS
33
WHEREAS, the most noble Prince of famous memory, King Henry
the First, son of William Conqueror, did, by his letters patent,
incorporate the town and borough of Cambridge with sundry liberties,
whereby they are to use about their necessary affairs, one common
seal of arms, as all other corporations do; since which time they
have not only used in the same seal the portraiture of a bridge, but
also made shew thereof in colours, being no perfect arms, I HAVE
...not only set forth that their ancient common seal is a true and
perfect arms, but also augmented and annexed unto the same arms,
a crest and supporters, due and lawful to be borne, in manner and
form following, that is to say, Gules a bridge, in chief, a flower de
luce gold, between two roses silver, on a point wave, three boats
sable : and to the crest, upon the healme on a wreath gold and gules,
on a mount vert, a bridge silver. Mantled gules, doubled silver.
The arms supported by two Neptune's horses, the upper part gules,
the nether part proper, finned gold, as more plainly appeares depicted
in the margin; IN WITNESS whereof, I, the said Clarencieux
King of Arms, have set hereunto my hand and seal of office, the
seventh day of June, Anno Domini, 1575, and in the seventeenth
year of the reign of our Sovereign Lady Queen Elizabeth, &c.
ROB. COOKE, alias CLARENCIEUX,
Roy d'Armes.
Among the payments made by the Town Treasurers for
the year ending Michaelmas 1575 occurs the following:
"Item, to y e Herault for grauntinge and settinge out y e
townes armes & patent thereof, v u ."
We have now traced the rise of the Municipality from its
dawn to the noon-tide of its history. We must reserve its
later career for another chapter.
FIG. 5. SEAL OF 1423.
c.
CHAPTER III
LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
Local Government. Mayor and Four-and-Twenty. Duties of Mayor.
Watch, punishments, sanctuary. Fire. Paving. Filthy streets.
Plague, Black Death. Freedom. Tournaments and other games.
The Gilds. Gild of Thanes. Social Gilds. Anti-clerical character of
some Cambridge Gilds. Candle rents. County Gilds. Gilds of
Corpus Christi, S. Mary, and Holy Trinity, and some others.
End of Gilds 1545. List of Cambridge Gilds.
Local Government.
WE have seen how civic authority gradually widened and how
by successive charters the town acquired the right to manage
its own affairs. We must now speak more particularly of the
Mayor and Four-and-Twenty and of the way in which they
used the power with which they were vested. We shall then
attempt to give some account of that most interesting phase
of medieval life, the combination of individuals into gilds for
mutual help and protection both moral and physical, a
system initiated and brought to perfection by the people
themselves. These matters will throw some light on the
every-day-life of the common folk of the town.
To speak first of the Mayor and the Four-and-Twenty.
The Mayor was obliged to dwell within the town, " in som
convenient place there, mete for y e mayer of that towne. So
that the same may be openly knowne to all persons repayringe
to y e same towne there, to be the Mayers house, by the honest
dressing & trimminge of the same, as well inwardlye as
outwardlye." * The honest dressing outwardlye was, it is
1 Ordinance, 1556. Cooper, Annals, n. 107.
THE MAYOR 35
presumed, ornamental posts, brightly painted, standing in the
street in front of his house, by which the dwelling of a Mayor
was usually distinguished. On the feasts of Christmas,
Easter, Whitsun, and Michaelmas, "and all the holliedays
of the same," the Mayor wore his scarlet gown, the aldermen
being in "murrey onelie." At Michaelmas the senior alder-
men were equal with the Mayor in respect of " gownes,"
while each had " one servant at the leaste wayting on him to
and from the chirche." And not only were the Mayor and
aldermen obliged by ordinance to wear their robes, but they
had to provide their wives with scarlet gowns also, or, in
default, to pay a penalty of 10; it was even thought
necessary to fine the wife 1, or six times as much as the
alderman himself had to pay for a like offence, if she did
not wear her gown on the appointed festivals. This was in
the reign of Elizabeth.
The Mayor must have been a most hard worked member
of the community and his duties by no means ended with his
state functions or with spending the 10 a year -allowed
him for official hospitality. His routine work, besides pre-
siding at the deliberations of the Town Council, included the
appointment of guardians of orphans, the administration of
wills, the admission of freemen, making the assay of bread,
wine, and ale, (until this duty was transferred to the Uni-
versity authorities,) and presiding at the bench of Magistrates,
and at the Court of Pie-Powder in Stourbridge Fair. Besides
these ordinary duties, soldiers had frequently to be provided
to serve against the Scots or the French, " of the more strong
and valiant of the town, armed with aketons, habergeons,
bacinets, and iron breast-plates," and these had also to be
supplied with victuals and clothes. A small and somewhat
miscellaneous collection of arms was kept in the Tolbooth
ready for use. Boats " called keles and seggebotes " had also
to be found and converted into barges for use at sea with the
king's ships, or a ballinger had to be manned with from forty
to fifty oars, for the defence of the realm. In 1522, the king
32
36 III. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
demanded twenty archers " in his service by yonde the See."
John Thirleby, Town Clerk, was sent up to London to
petition that only twelve be insisted upon, " to gett relesse
of viij " as he expresses it. The accounts of Edward Slegge
and John Harryson, treasurers of the town, give some details
of the muster.
Item, payed to two of the Kings pursuants comyng bothe upon
oon day, w th lettres for xx Archers to the Kyng in his service by
yonde the see, vj s viij d .
Item, payed for Bow stryngs atte first Muster, ij d .
Item, payed to Thomas Brakyn and John Thirleby rydyng to
London, & to Wynndsor to gett relesse of viij Archers parcel of xx
charged for the Towne of Cambridgge, ther beyng xv dayes for the
same, as apperith by a bill delyvered to Edward Slegge, iiij marcs . 1
The Mayor's administrative work appears to have been
of a very personal character. We find him on one occasion
going round the town with the Vice-Chancellor 'to cleanse
the streets against the coming of the Cardinal ' ; at another
time he is assaulted by a shearman whom he was arresting,
and who was armed with his shears and with a dagger.
In early times the burgesses themselves kept watch in the
streets by night, and the hours during which each man was to
be on duty had to be carefully arranged beforehand. After-
wards this task was assigned to the Waits or official musicians,
who were also aided by constables. It was the duty of certain
burgesses selected from among the " more lawful " in each
parish, to make enquiry about suspected persons who might
be supposed to be lodging in their respective parishes. The
waits were dressed in a uniform of " woollen cloth of bloody
colour" with silver collars weighing five ounces or more. 2
How insufficient was the protection afforded by the watch, is
shewn by the ordinance enacted in the middle of the fifteenth
century, that
1 Cooper, Annals, I. 306. ounces and iij quarters, at iiij 8 viij d the
2 Town Treasurers' accounts, 1564: ounce, L 8 ij d . Item, for y e makinge of
"Item for y e waites collors, wayenge x y e same ij collors, xiij 8 viij d ."
WATCH. PUNISHMENTS 37
No maner of man ne woman, hold his doer open after curfew
belle be rongen, for drede of Aspyers stondying therein, waytyng
men for to betyn, or to slen, or for' other peryl that myght falle
thereof. AND that no maner of man, of what degree that he be, go
armyd ne bere no wepen in destourbance of the Kynges pes, opon
peyne of XX s eche man that is founden in defaute for the same, to be
payed to the Mayr and Baylies, and his body to go to prison. 1
A bad substitute for the insufficiency of the watch was
found in the severity and vile character of the punishments
inflicted on evildoers. Trivial offences were punished by
death, and the stocks, pillory, whipping post, and ducking
stool were in constant use, while mere confinement in a
medieval prison cannot but have been a terrible ordeal and
must often have caused death. So late as 1665 a man
convicted of robbery was condemned to be pressed to death,
" which accordingly the same day was done between 5 and 7
in the afternoon, he was about an houre in dying. At his
pressing he confest himself guilty of y e robbery & of many
other robberyes." 2 We have an instance of the practice of
exposing the bodies of criminals who had been executed, in a
grim record of 1441, when one of the quarters of a priest who
had been executed at Tyburn was sent to Cambridge. 3
Vagabonds and loose women were whipped at the cart's tail
from the Tolbooth to the Bridge and back. We have
reference to this practice in the following extracts from the
accounts of the Town Treasurers :
Item, for a visar bought at the comandement of Mr Maior &
ye counsell, to serve for him that whipped vacabounds, ij s .
Item, for viij yards of frise to make a cote for that purpose,
vj s viij d .
Item, for makinge the same cote and poynts, xxj d . 4
And to the practice of branding a criminal in this :
Item, to Bracher for mending of boults, and making a burning
iron, ij s . 5
1 Cooper, Annals, I. 196. (1445.) 4 Ib. II. 311. (1572.)
8 Ib. in. 516. 5 Ib. II. 518. (1592.)
3 Ib. I. 190.
38 III. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
There is an interesting illustration of the use of the pillory
in a letter from Lord North to the Vice-Chancellor in 1569
respecting " evyll and fowle wordes," spoken to the Mayor by
a student. In consideration of the offender being a member
of the University, his lordship is " content that you shall
qualyfe this punishment & that he shall but onely stand upon
the Pillorye & have one of his eares nayled to the same by
the space of three howrs, & that yow doe take order to see
this done. And where yow alledge him to be dronke, yow
are to consyder the tyme yn the mornyng, which was not lyke
he could so longe remayne dronke And yf he had been
eyther of the Sheer or towen he shoold have lost both hys
eares." The borough accounts for the financial year 1569-70
contain the item " for ij peces of tymber for the pillorie when
the man was nayled there iiij d ." and there is also a charge for
" fetchinge the pillorie from stirbridge chappell." The stocks
were no doubt fixed and permanent as being in constant
demand, and it was moreover ordered that every parish
should have a pair.
Another instrument of justice, the " Cuckyngstoole " or
Ducking Chair, was situated at the Great Bridge. It is
mentioned in the Hundred Rolls as one of the privileges of
the town, and there are frequent charges for its repair. The
chair hung by a pulley fastened to a beam about the middle
of the bridge ; the back panel was engraved and painted with
a representation of devils laying hold of scolds. Such was its
appearance in the first half of last century, when it was
constantly hanging in its place. Any woman convicted of
being a common scold was placed in the chair and let down
three times into the water.
The right of Sanctuary added to the difficulties of the
Watch. Each parish being responsible for any crime com-
mitted within its boundaries, it behoved every one to assist in
taking the culprit. If a criminal had taken sanctuary it was
necessary to watch the church night and day to see that he
did not escape. Thus when Agnes Makerell " placed herself
FIRES
39
in the church of the Friars Minors in Cambridge, and ac-
knowledged herself to be a thief before many of the people,
and having afterwards withdrawn from that church without
making any abjuration; 1 it was adjudged by the justices
itinerant, that the town should answer for her flight, and
that she should be outlawed and waived." 2 At the same
time it was impossible to touch the fugitive while she re-
mained in the sacred precincts. The Mayor of Cambridge
did, on one occasion, take a man who had fled to the cemetery
of S. Peter's Church, but he, with the bailiffs and six others,
were immediately threatened with excommunication by the
Bishop of Ely, and only escaped by restoring the man and his
goods to the church. The expense and trouble involved by
this system must have been very heavy, especially in times of
want, when crime would become more common.
The town authorities also made provision against fire. A
large number of leather buckets were kept in
various places, besides scoops and ladders. Four
large iron hooks 3 were kept in the Churches of
S. Mary, S. Botolph, S. Andrew, and S. Sepul-
chre. These hooks, of which one is still preserved
in S. Benedict's churchyard (fig. 6), were fixed
on to the ends of long poles and were also
.provided with two rings to which chains or ropes
could be attached. The hook would then be
lifted on to the roof of a burning house, or one
that was threatened, and the thatch would be
quickly torn off, or even the timber framing
plucked down. Mr Atwell condemns these
hooks, for they "so let the fire have the more
air to burn the more violently." In his directions
for ' quenching an house on fire ' he says, " The
Instruments for this purpose (not to speak of the
water-squirt, which will throw a whole hogs-head
FIG. 6.
FIRE-HOOK.
About five
feet long.
1 If she had abjured the realm she
would have been allowed to depart
without hindrance (Revue Htstorique,
vol. I,.).
2 Cooper, Annals, I. 61. (1286.)
3 They were called "cromes," at
Norwich (Russell, 139).
4O III. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
of water to the top of an house at once ; for that such are
scarce to be had, save in some great Towns or Cities) are
pikes, spits, mawkins, pike staves, forks, wet-blankets, ladders,
buckets, scopets, pails, &c. and the materials, water, coal-dust,
turf-ashes, wood-ashes, sand, horse-dung, dust, dirt, and in
extremity even drest-grain itself." 1 He then goes on to
explain how each of these may be used. Though writing in
the latter half of the seventeenth century, the conditions in
his days were the same as those of the Middle Ages. The
very chimneys were frequently made of wood. " If the foot
of a brick or stone-chimney be on fire, discharge a pistoll
twice or thrice upon it ; so soot and fire and all falls
together."
The paving of the streets was a trouble from very early
times, and tolls were frequently levied on certain goods
brought into the town to pay for the same, or at other times
each householder was obliged to pave the street opposite to
his own house. To prevent " the marring of the pavement "
it was ordered, that no iron shod wheels or "other evil
engine" should be allowed, but only bare wheels.
The executive was not more successful in dealing with the
removal of filth from the streets and yards. Refuse of all
sorts was thrown out into the street and there allowed to
accumulate in great heaps, or into the river and ditches. The .
picture of the condition of the streets given in the Act of 35
Hen. VIII. for paving the town is probably not too highly
coloured. It is as follows :
Forasmoche as the auncient Boroughe and Towne of Cambrydge,
wele inhabyted and replenysshed withe people bothe in the Univer-
site where noble and many worshipfull mennys chyldren be put to
lernyng & study, also wyth dyvers and sundry Artyficers & other
inhabitaunts, ys at this day very sore decayed in pavyng, and the
high stretes & lanes within the same Towne excedyngly noyed wyth
fylth and myre lying there in great heapes and brode plasshes not
onely noysom & comberouse to the inhapytaunts of the sayd
Boroughe, and suche other the Kyngs subjects as dayly dothe passe
by and through the same on fote, but allso very perillous & tedious
1 Atwell, 1662. p. 95.
PAVING AND LIGHTING. PLAGUE 41
to all suche persones as shall on Horseback convey or cary any
thing with carts by and throughe the same '
Matters must have been made far worse by the habit of
housing cattle, swine, and horses in the town at nights and
turning them out in the morning as the common herdman
passed, to be driven by him to the town pastures. 2 The
Parliament which was held here in 1388 passed an Act
known formerly as the Statute of Cambridge providing for
the keeping clean of towns. Perhaps it was suggested by the
state of the town in which the Parliament sat. 3
As each householder was obliged to pave the street oppo-
site to his house, so also was he answerable for the lighting.
On dark nights he had to hang out a lantern in front of his
house. A crier was sent round the town on the nights when
this was required. In the Town Treasurer's accounts we find
the wages of the crier charged thus :
1615. Item, to a fellowe that Cried candell light for xij weeks,
xij s .
1616. Item, to him that crieth lanthorne and Candell light,
xiij 5 . 4
As might be expected from this .state of things, the town
was frequently visited by the plague, and sickness must have
been at all times rife. We can hardly realise, now-a-days,
the havoc made by the Black Death. There is a grim
contemporary record of the condition of one part of the town
soon afterwards. The Ward beyond the Bridge, that is, all
the town on the Castle side of the river, appears to have
been almost entirely destroyed. Most of the people in the
parish of All Saints' in Castro died and those that escaped
left the neighbourhood for other parishes. The people of
1 Cooper, Annals, 1. 409. earlier editions, " Cantebr 1 " is translated
2 In the Town Treasurer's accounts " Canterbury." Fuller noted this mis-
for 1564, we find the following: "Item, take in his History, 1655.
for a home for y e herdeman, xvj d ." 4 Cooper, Annals, ill. 93, 103.
3 Statutes at Large, ed. Danby Also Knight's London, i. 402. Similar
Pickering, 1762, II. 298, and Ruffhead charges occur annually from 1615 to
and Runington, 1769, 1. In these as in 1672.
42 III. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
S. Giles' suffered as severely. The nave of All Saints' Church
fell into ruins and the bones of the dead were exposed to the
beasts. 1 The rest of the town was in the same plight. The
mortality among the clergy we know. For instance the
Master of the Hospital of S. John died towards the end of
April and one Robert de Sprouston was appointed to
succeed him. He died very soon after and Roger de
Broom was instituted on 24th May, but he also died, and
another took his place. On the day that Roger de Broom
was made Master the parson of S. Sepulchre's died, and
several others died soon after. 2 " For three years previous
to 1349 the average number of institutions recorded in the
episcopal registers was nine, and in 1348 it was only seven.
In this year of the great sickness 97 appointments to livings
in the diocese were made by the Bishop's Vicars, and in July
alone there were 25." 3 Father Gasquet calculates that out
of 140 beneficed clergy and 508 non-beneficed, including the
various religious orders, "at least 350 of the clerical order
must have perished in the diocese of Ely." 3 The records of
the later visitations are the fullest, but their recurrence all
through the Middle Ages is very frequent. In 1521-22 it
is recorded that
In thys yere, at the Assise kept at the castle of Cambridge in
Lent, the Justices, and al the gentlemen, Bailiffes and other, resorting
thether, toke such an infeccion, whether it were of the savor of the
prisoners, or of the filthe of the house, that manye gentlemen, as Sir
Jhon Cut, Sir Giles Alington, Knightes, and many other honest
yomen thereof dyed, and all most all whiche were there present,
were sore sicke and narrowly escaped with their lives. 4
The elaborate ordinances drawn up in 1575 contain strict
provisions for the seclusion of the afflicted and the destruction
of their goods, and for keeping the town clean.
1 Historical MSS. Commission, united with that of S. Giles.
6th Report, Appendix p. 299. In 2 Gasquet, 134.
consequence of this devastation the 3 Ibid. 133.
parish of All Saints by the Castle was 4 Cooper, Annals, I. 305.
FREEDOM
45
Also, that no manner of person inhabiting within any house
visited hereafter with plague or pestilence, after notice and significa-
tion given by the Vice-Chancellor and Mayor, by these words in
writing in great letters set upon the uppermost post of his street-door
viz., " Lord have mercy upon us," shall go abroad out of that house,
upon pain for the first default, 20 s , and for the second default herein
40 s , and for the third default, perpetual banishment out of the
town.... 1
The duties and privileges of citizenship were enjoyed by
the limited class then known as burgesses and whom we
should call freemen. Though in the Middle Ages this class
was not the narrow clique forming only a small proportion of
the populace which it became in later times, the privilege of
freedom was confined to the well-to-do classes, and was
practically out of the reach of their inferiors. Freedom was
attainable by birth, by apprenticeship and by purchase. The
eldest son could have his freedom during his father's life on
paying a fine of 6s. 8d. At the death of the father the eldest
son paid a fee of fixed amount, the other sons making the
best bargain they might with the Four-and-Twenty. The
son or apprentice of the burgess of another town could not
have his freedom on the same terms as the son or apprentice
of a freeman, but was obliged to make what terms he could
with two burgesses whom the Mayor and commonalty should
depute. 2 These two burgesses were called Godfathers. In
the reign of Elizabeth every burgess was obliged to obtain
for his apprentice the freedom of the town, at his own cost.
During the Commonwealth the old name godfather was
objected to and was abolished by the following order :
Whereas heretofore in all eleccions of foraigne freemen, Two of
the four and twenty have been nominated Godfathers to sett the fines
for such fredomes; It is agreed & ordered that henceforward they
shall in no wise be called Godfathers but Assessors of the Fine. 3
The Mayor appears to have had the right of admitting
1 Cooper, Annals, n. 335. 3 Order of 24th August 1649. *b.
8 Ordinance of 1462; Ib. I. 213. in. 429.
44 HI. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
one man to the freedom of the town. Oliver Cromwell is
said to have obtained the freedom in this way, and thus to
have qualified to serve as burgess in Parliament. 1 The
practice of making non-resident freemen was common in the
Middle Ages, for merchants living in other towns were often
willing to obtain trading rights and so forth by purchasing
partial freedom. The election of freemen simply to support
a particular parliamentary interest only freemen having
votes appears to have begun in 1679, when twenty-two
admissions were made. This would be a large addition to
the then small number of freemen. A century later the
abuse had grown, as we shall see in a subsequent chapter.
The town reaped an important benefit from the presence
of the University in the prohibition of all tournaments, war-
like games, bull-baitings, and bear-baitings within or near
the town, though it may be doubted if the advantage was
generally appreciated by the people. Fuller's lively picture
of the scenes witnessed on these occasions is probably a true
one, but he can hardly be right in saying that tournaments
were commonly kept here. King Henry III. constantly sent
down to stop them when they were announced, and finally
forbade them altogether within five miles of Cambridge. 2
Edward I. did the like 3 and his wise action was probably
followed by his successors.
" Tournaments and tilting of the nobility and gentry
were," says Fuller, "commonly kept at Cambridge, to the
great annoyance of Scholars. Many sad casualties were
caused by these meetings, though ordered with the best
caution. Arms and legs were often broken as well as spears.
Much lewd people waited on these assemblies, light house-
wives as well as light horsemen repaired thereunto. Yea,
such the clashing of swords, the rattling of arms, the sounding
of trumpets, the neighing of horses, the shouting of men all
day-time, with the roaring of riotous revellers all night, that
1 See Chapter vi. 3 Ibid. I. 71.
2 Cooper, Annals, i. 53.
. TOURNAMENTS AND BAITINGS 45
the Scholars' studies were disturbed, safety endangered,
lodging straightened, charges enlarged, all provisions being
unconscionably enhanced. In a word, so many war horses
were brought thither, that Pegasus himself was likely to be
shut out ; for where Mars keeps his term, there the Muses
may even make their vacation." *
In the second year of his reign, James I. forbade unprofit-
able or idle games in Cambridge or within five miles thereof
" whereby the younger sort are or may be drawn or provoked
to vain expence loss of time or corruption of manners." 2
Bull-baiting, bear-baiting, common plays, public shows, in-
terludes, comedies and tragedies in the English tongue and
games at loggets and nine holes were specially forbidden.
The town made a bull-ring in the year in which this order
was issued, as the following charges shew : " Item, for making
a bulringe, iij s xj d . Item, for 63'' of lead & a stone to fasten yt
in, ix s vj d . Item, for a bushell of stones to pave about yt, 4 d .
Item, for pavinge yt, x d ." 3 It is possible that the making of
this bull-ring induced the University authorities to petition
the king, and that the order was a consequence of their
action.
That games were so frequently forbidden shews at least
that they were constantly revived. So late as 1749 a " Great
Muscovy Bear" was baited at the Wrestlers' Inn; "The
whole Entertainment," it was announced, " will conclude with
a Scene worthy Observations of the curious." 4
The Gilds.
We must now turn our attention to those important
organizations, the Gilds, of one class of which we have, for-
tunately, unusually full records. In many towns the control
of some trades was, during the fourteenth century, delegated
1 Fuller, 25. 3 Town Treasurer's accounts, 1604.
2 Letter from James I. 23 July Cooper, Annals, III. n.
1604. Cooper, Annals, III. 6. 4 Camb. Antiq. Soc. vm. 353.
46 III. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
by the town authorities to chosen representatives of the
tradesmen. For this purpose gilds were formed, or authority
was given to existing gilds. But at Cambridge this authority
appears to have been retained in the hands of the Four-and-
Twenty or of the Gild Merchant. We find no mention of a
Craft Gild with supervision over the craft, or even of one of
those Social Gilds such as existed at Norwich for instance,
consisting exclusively of members of one trade though
without authority in that trade.
Of the other class of gild, the Religious or Social Gild, 1
partaking of the character of a Benefit Club or Friendly
Society, Cambridge affords examples both numerous* and
interesting. We have already given some account of the
Gild of Thanes which existed at Cambridge before the
Conquest. How long this continued we do not know, but
there is no evidence for connecting it with any one of the
later gilds of which we are now speaking. The records of
these gilds are numerous. The most valuable of them are
contained in a large collection of Returns made in 1389 to
the King in Council by gilds of both sorts in all parts of
the kingdom, giving full information about all their concerns. 3
1 In the Middle Ages the gilds of the foundation of the gilds ; the
now usually known as ' Religious Gilds,' manner and form of the oaths, gather-
and which Mr Toulmin Smith (English ings, feasts, and general meetings of
Gilds) preferred to call 'Social Gilds,' the brethren and sisteren; as to the
that is, non-craft gilds, were called privileges, statutes and customs ; and
simply 'gilds or brotherhoods." Indi- as to their lands, tenements, rents and
vidual gilds were distinguished by the possessions, and goods and chattels,
names of their patron saints, such as A selection from these Returns
the ' Gild of S. Katherine.' The craft- forms the foundation of Mr Toulmin
gilds are spoken of as 'Mysteries and Smith's invaluable work English Gilds,
Crafts ' without the use of the word published by the Early English Text
gild ; but each called itself by such a Society. We have to acknowledge
title as ' Gild of Carpenters.' our great indebtedness to this work.
2 A list of all the Cambridge gilds Since it was published the documents,
of which we have found any record is now preserved in the Public Record
given at the end of this chapter. Office, have been flattened and repaired,
3 The gilds were to make returns and an index has been made,
as to the manner and form and authority
THE GILDS 47
These Returns have a somewhat special interest to Cambridge
people in particular. They were made in obedience to a
Writ issued by a Parliament held at Cambridge in 1388.
That Parliament, which was as remarkable for the amount of
work it got through as for the shortness of the time for which
it sat, we have already noticed ; it passed the Statute of
Cambridge for the cleansing of towns. Of the Returns made
in the following year many are now lost, but those that have
been preserved give the most valuable information on the
subject of gilds which we possess.
The religious gilds connected with the churches of Cam-
bridge are particularly interesting on account of a certain
well-marked characteristic common to several of them,
namely, the strong anti-clerical feeling shewn by their
ordinances. In one case parsons are excluded altogether,
in others they are allowed no voice in the management.
But it is probable that this tone is due, in part at least, to
the presence of the University, and that the ordinances in
question are directed against clerks as members of the
University rather than as parsons. Even during the occa-
sional truces between the University and the burgesses, it
might be very necessary to guard against the possibility
of the control of a gild falling into the hands of the clerks.
It must be remembered that the fourteenth century, during
which most of these ordinances were drawn up, was the
period of the greatest hostility between the town and the
University. On the other hand, two Cambridge gilds shewed
a very opposite spirit by uniting for the purpose of found-
ing a college, while in the county two others, at least,
made it an important object to assist in the repair of the
parish church. The an ti- clerical tone of the ordinances is
by no means to be taken as indicating a want of religious
feeling, and the exclusion of the clergy was probably the
exception rather than the rule. Generally all classes were
admitted, and so also were women, or at least those whose
husbands belonged to the gild.
48 III. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
The fraternities always bore a religious dedication and
attached themselves to a particular church, where they cele-
brated the feast of their patron saint and kept candles burning
before an altar, and where they said masses for the living and
dead. The mutual help of the members both living and dead
was their chief object, but in two or three of the Cambridge
gilds, material aid to the living is admitted to be the first
consideration. The fraternity made grants in money to
members who were in poverty or sickness, they attended
the funeral of a departed brother or sister and offered up
prayers for the soul. The Alderman of the gild also
acted as arbitrator in cases of dispute, and members were
not allowed to go to law with one another till they had
first appealed to him. The gild derived its funds from the
regular payments of the members and from bequests. Pay-
ments were made in money or kind, very frequently in wax
for the lights in the church, the lights forming a heavy item
in the expenditure. It was common for a member to leave to
the gild, on his death, small sums for the maintenance of the
lights, to be paid annually out of the rents of house-property.
These charges were called "Candle-rents," and they appear to
have led to serious trouble in later times. Their payment
seems to have been very much begrudged, and in the riot of
1381 the people made them one of their grievances, and a
special cause of ill will to Corpus Christi College, which pos-
sessed many of them, derived, no doubt from the gild of
Corpus Christi.
The members of each gild met together several times a
year to elect officers, to discuss the affairs of the gild and to
dine. These meetings were held in the house of one of the
brothers, at an inn or some such place, or in a house set apart
for the purpose. The Gild of S. Catharine in the Priory
church of Barnwell had on lease of the Prior and Convent
of that place a house in Barnwell Street called S. Katharine's
House. This consisted of a hall, two chambers at the upper
end of the hall with a garret over them, and at the lower end
GILD OF CORPUS CHRISTI 49
a kitchen and a rye chamber. Another gild had, at least
when its statutes were drawn up, no fixed abode ; they were
to "come togedyr, unto a certeyn place assygned." But to
the same gild, that of S. Peter and S. Paul, one of its
members, Mistress Annes Smyth, left " I Tabyl Cloth off
Dyaper iij yerds and iij Quartris," and other household goods,
so it is probable that they had at that time a common hall.
Thirty-three such gilds are known to have existed in
Cambridge. How many of these flourished at any one time
we cannot say, nor how many more there may have been
of which all record is now lost. For the whole county the
Returns of thirty-three other gilds are preserved. This is
probably but a small proportion of those that actually existed
at one time and another, for the Returns of only eight of the
thirty-three Cambridge gilds are extant. Of the county gilds,
three were in Chesterton, seven in Ely, and six in Wisbech ;
the rest were scattered among the villages.
Having said thus much on the gilds in general we shall
present the clearest idea of their objects and influence by
giving a few particulars of some individual instances.
The Gild of Corpus Christi in S. Benedict's Church appears
to have been the most important, as its name is certainly the
most famous, of the Cambridge gilds. It was perhaps founded,
like that which bore the same dedication at York, for the pur-
pose of conducting the procession on the feast of Corpus
Christi. 1 But the gild shewed a truer appreciation of the
needs of the age by founding the college which bears its
name. For this purpose it united with another gild, that
of S. Mary in the Church of S. Mary-by-the-Market. The
college which they founded was called after both gilds, its full
name being the College of Corpus Christi and the Blessed
Virgin Mary. The brethren wisely chose as their alderman,
Henry Duke of Lancaster, cousin of King Edward III., and
so slcured the court influence which was necessary for the
1 The Thursday after Trinity Sun- Pope Urban IV. about 1264. (Josse-
day. The festival was instituted by lin, Hist. Coll. Corp. CAri., 14.)
C. 4
50 III. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
speedy execution of their object. They obtained the charter
for their college from the King in 1352, and immediately set
about the work of establishing it and providing it with build-
ings. These they erected on a site immediately to the south
of S. Benedict's Church, the presentation to which they soon
afterwards obtained and conferred upon the college. The
history of the college we shall give in a later chapter. The
great Corpus Christi procession, one of the most important
religious functions in the year, and one in which the whole
population joined, was henceforth conducted by both the
college and the gild. The alderman of the gild for the year
led the way, followed by the seniors carrying silver shields,
enamelled, bearing coats of arms and the symbols of the
Passion. Then came the Master of the college, a canopy
held over him, carrying the Host contained in a tabernacle
of silver-gilt. 1 He was followed by the Vice-Chancellor,
the Fellows and Scholars of the college and members of
the University, by the Mayor and Town Council, and lastly
by all the burgesses and common people. Torches were
carried by those who took part in the ceremony, and the
representation of Biblical scenes, either spoken or in dumb
show, probably formed part of the procession, as they did in
two gilds at York. We find that in 1350 William de Lenne
(Lynn) and Isabel his wife, on their admission to the gild,
presented half a mark towards the play of the Children of
Israel. 2 " Thus," says Fuller, " from Benet Church, they
advanced to the great bridge, through all the parts of the
town, and so returned with a good appetite to the place
where they began. Then in Corpus Christi College was a
dinner provided them, where good stomachs meeting with
1 Inventory made probably in the of our money. Josselin, writing in
1 5th century, preserved in Corp. Chris. about 1570, says that the Host was
Coll. Camb. and quoted by Mr Riley carried in a pix of silver gilt weighing
in his Report (Historical MSS. Com- 78^ ounces, given by Sir John de?Cam-
mission. First Report}. The value is bridge, Alderman of the gild in 1344.
there stated to be " 20 pounds of lawful 2 Accounts of the gild, preserved
money,' equal to several hundred pounds in Corpus Christi College.
GILD OF SAINT MARY 51
good cheer and welcome, no wonder if mirth followed of
course." The great horn which was passed round at these
feasts is still preserved in the college. 1 The ceremony was
abolished by the Commissioners of Edward VI. in 1549,
revived under Queen Mary, and finally abolished by Queen
Elizabeth, not, however, without vigorous remonstrances by
the townspeople who had come to regard the dinner as their
right. On the last occasion on which the procession was
made, as the Host was being borne past the Falcon Inn in the
Petty Cury, the canopy which was held over it caught fire,
"either," says Fuller, "by the carelessness of the torch bearers,
or maliciously, by some covertly casting fire thereon out of
some window, or miraculously, to shew that God would
shortly consume such superstition." Some very interesting
records of the gild are extant, including lists of admissions
giving a great number of names, and some accounts. The
latter seem to shew that the gild traded and made a profit by
selling boars, pigs, steers, sheep, malt, bran, grains, and herbs
from their garden. 2
The Gild of the Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church of
S. Mary-by-the-Market, with which the Gild of Corpus Christi
had joined, was in existence in 1282. It admitted both men
and women and did not exclude the clergy. All sorts of
people are entered on its Bede Roll and a great variety of
trades are mentioned. 3
Another of the more important of the Cambridge gilds
appears to have been that of the Holy Trinity in the Church
of Holy Trinity, founded in I377- 4 The ordinances are
1 Presented, probably about 1347, le taylour,. John Godsone, perhaps a
by John Goldecorne, Alderman of the son or grandson of Benedict Godson,
gild. It is figured in Old Cambridge Burgess in Parliament for the town in
Plate (C. A. S.). i 2 95> 1 tabletter, le mazoun, the Par-
2 Royal Commission on Hist. MSS. sons of S. Benedict's and S. Sepulchre,
First Report. le cupper, le irnemonger, le sergant.
3 Among other trades and names 4 It is endorsed " Gilda Cantebr\"
we find the following : le chapman, le From the fact of its being called the
harpour, le chesemonger, le spicer, le Gild of Cambridge, Mr Toulmin Smith
scheyer, le coteler, le flaxmonger, le supposes it to have been the most im-
reder [reeder or thatcher], le hatter, portant.
42
52 III. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
interesting as being different in several respects from those
of other gilds. They very strictly forbid the affairs of the
gild being placed in the hands of parsons, " For it is neither
becoming nor lawful that a parson should in any way mix
himself up with secular business ; nor does it befit the good
name or come within the calling of such men, that they
should take on themselves offices and things of this sort." l
Ecclesiastics were allowed to join the gild as ordinary
members but were disqualified from office. The gild also
agreed to appoint a chaplain " if the means of the gild
enable it." Under the same condition there was to be a
candle-bearer enriched with a carving of the Holy Trinity,
on the top of which three candles were to be kept burning on
Sundays and Feast-days. On the eve of the feast of Holy
Trinity, the Alderman, the two stewards, the Dean, and the
brethren were to meet at some place agreed upon, and thence
march two and two, in their livery (if they had any) to the
Church of Holy Trinity to hear evensong. They in like
manner had to attend services on the Feast-day and to
present offerings. Any one who did not attend was to pay
two pounds of wax.
It is impossible here to give even an abstract of the very
full and interesting laws which the brethren of this gild drew
up, and for which they obtained the approval of the Bishop.
The first ordinance, De Officiariis, will give some idea of
the objects and organization of the gild and the way in
which its affairs were managed.
There shall be one head of the Gild, who shall be styled 'Alder-
man.' There shall also be two Stewards, who shall gather in and
deal with the goods and chattels of the Gild, and shall trade with
the same ; and they shall give an account thereof, and of all gains
thence arising, to the Alderman and bretheren, and deliver them up
1 "Item statuimus et ordinamus officiarium dicte Gilde, nee aliqua bona
quod si contingat aliquem virum eccle- habeat ministranda;...cum non deceat,
siasticum, presertim in sacris ordinibus nee liceat, clericus negociis secularibus
constitutum, ad dictam fraternitatem se aliquatenus immisceri...." (Toulmin
assumi, quod non preficiatur in aliquam Smith, 265.)
GILD OF HOLY TRINITY 53
as is hereinafter said. They shall take an oath of office, and more-
over find two sureties. There shall also be a Dean of the Gild, who
shall enter the names of new-comers ; give warning to the bretheren
of all the times when they must meet, and make record of the
warning; write down moneys received and fines that are due, and
levy the latter; give out to needy bretheren their allowances, as is
below said ; carefully see that all is rightly done on the burial of a
brother or his wife ; and range the bretheren in becoming manner
when they meet. a
There were five meetings in the year : at four of these the
ordinary affairs of the gild were considered, and each member
paid sixpence to the common stock. At the fifth meeting,
held soon after Trinity Sunday, accounts were audited and
officers elected. The election was not made by the whole
body, but by seven members selected by the retiring Alder-
man. At the death of a brother or of his wife ' all becoming
services' were done, and the officers of the gild were expected
to be present. Any brother, or brother's wife who was in need
without fault of their own, received sevenpence a week 2 and a
gown and hood once a year, and was free of all contributions
to the gild. These allowances were continued to the widow
of a departed brother so long as she did not marry again.
New members were elected by the whole body of brethren ; they
paid an entrance-fee of thirteen and fourpence, and also six-
pence to the Alderman and threepence to the Dean. Respect
was to be paid to the Alderman, his ruling at meetings was to
be obeyed, and there was to be no angry or idle talk. If the
Alderman was aware of a quarrel between two brethren he
was to try to bring them to peace. The Alderman had power
to punish a disobedient brother or one who did anything hurt-
ful to the good name of the gild. If the brother refused to
submit he might be turned out of the gild, or, on the pre-
sentment of the Alderman and two brethren, he might be
dealt with by the Bishop as a perjurer and faith-breaker.
1 Toulmin Smith, 263. value of money, this is quite a liberal
2 Considering the change in the allowance.
54 HI. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
The Bishop not only approved these laws, but granted an
Indulgence of forty days to all who should join or help the
gild.
The other gilds founded in Cambridge in the fourteenth
century have ordinances equally interesting and original.
The Gild of the Annunciation was begun in order that
" kindliness should be cherished more and more, and discord
be driven out." The wives of brethren were admitted to the
rights of membership, but all other women were excluded,
and also all parsons and bakers. The Gild of the Blessed
Virgin in the Church of S. Mary next the market (juxta
fforunt) admits parsons and will keep a chaplain, " but it is
to be clearly understood that, if the funds of the Gild fall
below ten marks, the finding of a chaplain shall stop; and the
goods of the Gild shall be then bestowed in the maintenance
of a light and of the poor brethren. When the Gild gets
richer, a chaplain shall be refound." 1 The Fraternity of the
Blessed Virgin Mary in the Church of S. Botolph allowed a
poor brother yd. a week, or, if there were two brethren in
need, ^d. each.
" The fulness and originality of the ordinances of the many
gilds in Cambridge, up till the end of the fourteenth century,"
has been pointed out by Mr Toulmin Smith, who thus pro-
ceeds, " Not less striking is the entire change in this respect
which took place in the fifteenth century. Nowhere else in
all England have I yet found one gild after another copying
the ordinances of an older gild. In the fifteenth century this
happened in Cambridge ; and with such seemingly blind
helplessness, that ordinances, professing to be those of
distinct gilds, and which had more than forty years' differ-
ence between them in the dates of their foundation, are more
identical in shape and words, so far as these could be used in
separate bodies, than are the different versions of what are
avowedly copies of the same Bye-laws of Tettenhall-Regis." 2
The ordinances are, nevertheless, not without interest, and we
1 Toulmin Smith, 271. 2 Ib. , 272.
GILD OF SS. PETER AND PAUL 55
may, therefore, give the purport of the most important of
them. 1 All the brethren and sisters met on the Sunday next
after Low Sunday in their best clothes, to attend mass. There
were also two other meetings in the year, called " morowe
spechis" for general business, at which each paid for his
pension twopence. Any one not present had to pay a pound
of wax, or if coming " aftir prime be smette, he schal payne
ij deiiar. And y e oure prime is clepyd the secounde oure
aftyr noone, alsowel in somertyme as in wynter." The
election of officers was in this manner. " First, y e Aldir-
man schal clepene vpe ij. men be name. And the compenye
schalle clepen vpe othir ij. men. And these iiij. men schul
chesen to hem othir ij. men. And thanne these vj. men schul
ben chargid, be the othe yat yei haue made to the Gylde
beforne tyme yat yei schul gon and chesen an Aldirman, ij.
Maystirs, a clerk, and a Deen, which hem thynkith, be heyr
gud conscience that ben most able for to gouerne y e companye
in y e yere folowyng." On the days of meeting the Alderman
was allowed " to his drynk and for his geestys,y Galone of ale,
and every Maystir a potell, and the clerk a potell, and y e deen
a quart of ale." The clerk and the dean were each paid 2od.
a year. The fifth statute ordains an entrance fee of qod. and
is followed by a devout prayer that the payment may be made
promptly " to the more avayle and furtheraunce of the gylde
and to his more meede, be the grace of our lorde gode.
Amen." Thirty masses were to be sung for the soul of a
departed brother within ten days of his death, and all the
gild were " to come to the place wer the deede body is, for to
gon therwith to y e chirche honestly and with the lyghtys of
this company, and for to ofifren for y e sowl, at the messe don
therfore, a farthyng." The vicar of the church was to be paid
4^. 4</. for praying for the members both living and dead.
1 The following abstract is from the Clement in the Church of S. Clement
ordinances of the Gild of SS. Peter and and of All Saints in the Church of All
Paul in the Church of S. Peter by the Saints [? in Jewry] are almost identical.
Castle, but those of the Gilds of S.
56 III. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
"If any brothir or sustir of this forseyd companye fall in-to
olde age or in-to grete pouerte, nor haue wherwith to be
foundene nor to help hymselfe, he schal haue, euery woke,
iiij. denar. of the goodys of the gylde, also-long as the catell
therof is worth xl.s. or more." If there was more than one
poor man, then the 4^. was to be divided among them. The
ninth statute is worth quoting at length : " Also if any man
be at heuynesse with any of his bretheryne for any maner of
trespas, he schal not pursewen him in no maner of courte :
but he schal come firste to the Alderman, and schewen to
hym his greuance. And than the Alderman schal sende
aftyr that odyr man, and knowen his offence. And than he
schal make eyther of hem for to chesen a brothir of the
forsayde companye, or ellys ij. bretheren, for to acorde hem
and sett hem at rest and pees. And if these men so chosen,
with the good mediacion of the Alderman, mowe not brynge
hem at acorde and at reste, thane may the Alderman geuen
hem licence for to gone to the comown law yf thei wyll. And
who-so goth to the common lawe for any playnt or trespas,
vn-to the tyme he hath ben at the Alderman and don as it is
sayde befor, he schal payen to the encres of the gylde xl.d.,
withoute any grace." No member was to linger at a "comown
drynkyng " after the Alderman had left. " And what brothir
or sustyr, bot yf he be any offycer, entryth into y e chambyr
ther the Ale is in, withoute Lycence of the offycers that
occupye therin, he schall payne I : Lib : wax." Anyone who
bewrayed the affairs of the gild " so that the compeny be
slaunderyd or hynderyd, or have any other vyllany thereby "
was fined 40^. The fines were paid either in money or in
wax, generally a pound, "to y e amendment of y e lightes."
This slight sketch must here serve for the more lively
picture which might be drawn of the gilds of Cambridge.
They were to come to a sudden and disastrous end with so
much else in the sixteenth century. The gilds were a prey too
easy to escape the all-devouring Henry VIII. They were
included in the Act for the suppression of the Colleges and
SUPPRESSION OF THE GILDS 57
Chantries in 1545, and those that then escaped fell in the first
year of Edward VI.
Of such measures it is difficult to speak with calmness.
The system of gilds, so vigorous and healthy, so "helpyng
ageins ye rebelle and vnboxhum " had been invented and
developed by the native genius of the people for organization
and self-help, and by their love of self-government. It had
produced in every locality and almost in every brotherhood
some distinguishing characteristics, some special features which
separate that particular place and fraternity from others,
and this is very clear in the case of the Cambridge gilds.
But apart from the local feeling which comes out almost
as distinctly as the local colouring, there is a wider and
deeper interest arising from the spirit displayed by the
whole system, a system which was to revive again after
an interval of 250 years. The same spirit runs through both
the old development and the new. But the old gilds bring
out more plainly one side of the national character, namely,
a brotherly kindliness and a strong religious feeling, not
unmixed with worldly wisdom and prudence. The spirit
that animated the gild brethren is the same that inspired
the final order which Hawkins issued to the captains of his
fleet for keeping in communication : SERVE GOD DAILY, LOVE
ONE ANOTHER, PRESERVE YOUR VICTUALS, BEWARE OF FIRE,
AND KEEP GOOD COMPANY.
List of Cambridge Gilds.
The following list gives all the Cambridge gilds of which
we have found any record, arranged under the churches to
which they attached themselves. The sources whence names
have been obtained are : The Index of the Returns preserved
in the Record Office; Mr Toulmin Smith's English Gilds;
information kindly given by his daughter and editor, Miss Lucy
Toulmin Smith ; the MS. collections of Baker in the Cam-
bridge University Library and those of Bowtell in Downing
58 III. LIFE IN CAMBRIDGE IN THE MIDDLE AGES
College; Mr C. H. Cooper's Memorials and Annals; and
Mr S. Sandar's Great S. Marys Church, published by the
Cambridge Antiquarian Society.
The Gild of Thanes of Cambridge ; Early Eleventh Century (see
Chapter i.).
In the Church of All Saints [? in the Jewry} : Gild of All Saints ;
ordinances 1473 and 1503 ; similar to those of the Gild of SS. Peter
and Paul; a brother in poverty allowed ^d. a week; women admitted.
In the Church of S. Andrew the Great: Gild of S. Katharine;
existing in 1389 and in 1500; women admitted.
In the Church of S. Andrew the Less (Barnwell Priory] : Gild of
S. Catharine ; existing in 1473 when they took on lease a house for
gild-meetings. Gild of S. Mary. Gild of S. Nicholas.
In the Church of S. Benedict : Gild of S. Augustine ; existing in
1504 and in 1526. Gild of Corpus Christi; probably begun about
1350; founded Corpus Christi College 1352; women admitted;
existing in 1374. Gild of S. Katharine; existing in 1389.
In the Church of S. Botolph : Fraternity of the Blessed Virgin
Mary; existing in 1389 ; a brother in poverty allowed id. a week.
In the Church of S. Clement : Gild of S. Clement ; ordinances
made 1431 ; similar to those of Gild of SS. Peter and Paul; existing
in 1483; a brother in poverty allowed ^d. a week ; women admitted.
Gild of Jesus.
In the Church of S. Edward: Gild of S. Edward. Gild of
S. Thomas the Martyr.
In the Church of S. Giles: Gild of S. Giles.
In the Church of S. Mary the Great: Gild of S. Andrew; existing
in 1459. Gild of the Annunciation; begun 1379; existing in
1389; wives of brethren admitted; no parsons or bakers. Gild
of S. Catharine. Gild of SS. Christopher and James. Gild of
the Blessed Virgin Mary; existing about 1284 and in 1408; united
with Gild of Corpus Christi to found College of Corpus Christi ;
ordinances approved by Consistory, 1385. Fraternity of S. Mary.
(It is often impossible to distinguish these two gilds if indeed they
were distinct.) Gild of S. Peter Milleyne; existing in 1503 and in
1526. Gild of S. Thomas; existing in 1503 and in 1526. Gild
of Holy Trinity ; existing in 1389. Gild of S. Ursula; existing in
1503 and in 1526.
In the Church of S. Mary the Less : Gild of S. Mary.
In the Church of S. Peter by the Castle : Gild of SS. Peter and
LIST OF GILDS 59
Paul; ordinances 1448; similar to those of the gilds of All Saints
and S. Clement ; a brother in poverty allowed ^d. a week ; women
admitted.
In the Church of Holy Sepulchre : Gild of S. Etheldreda.
In the Church of Holy Trinity : Gild of the Assumption of the
Blessed Virgin Mary; existing in 1389. Gild of S. Catharine;
existing in 1504. Gild of S. Clement. Gild of S. George;
existing in 1504. Gild of Holy Trinity; ordinances, 1377;
existing 1389 ; a brother or brother's widow in poverty allowed id. a
week; no parson to hold office. Gild of S. Ursula and Eleven
Thousand Virgins; existing in 1504.
CHAPTER IV
TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE
Cambridge never fortified ; its military position ; consequent topographi-
cal characteristics. The Castle, 1068. The King's Ditch, 1215 ;
its bridges. Bridges over the river : the sheriff and the hermit.
Hithes. Streets. Market Place. Cross. Conduit. Pillory, Stocks,
and Ducking-stool. Lesser markets and trade quarters ; street
names. Inns, taverns, coffee houses. Street architecture. School
of Pythagoras. Commons.
CAMBRIDGE has never been a fortified town. It probably
served as little more than a base of operations in early times,
as it certainly did at a later period ; a purpose for which it
was well fitted by its situation. As such it has been used by
successive commanders : by the Conqueror against the uncon-
quered fen-men; by Henry III. in his fruitless attempts to
reduce his enemies ; by Northumberland in his plot for
placing Lady Jane Grey on the Throne ; and by Cromwell as
a rendezvous for the Eastern Counties army. But it seems
never to have been worth a serious attack or defence, except
as an outpost. These facts it is necessary to bear in mind,
for they explain much of the general topographical character
of the town. The place was never packed closely within
walls in the usual medieval fashion. Its parishes stretched
across the river and along the roads which led out of the
town, their bounds being evidently determined by the con-
venience of including the houses which fringed the road and
not by circumscribing fortifications.
A castle was indeed built by the Conqueror on the site of
THE KING'S DITCH 6 1
the earlier fortifications, and King John made a ditch round
the town. But the Castle is absolutely without history, and
at least as early as the beginning of the fourteenth century
it was, like some other royal castles, used as a prison for
common criminals. 1
The ditch made by King John in 1215 was strengthened
by King Henry III., who intended to build a wall in
addition. The King's Ditch as it was always called can
never have been any defence to the town, except perhaps
against casual marauders, though it was for centuries a
cause of annoyance and sickness to the inhabitants by
serving as a harbour of filth. Branching out from the river
at the King's and Bishop's mills, it followed Mill Lane and
Pembroke Street (map, end of vol.), crossed the area now
occupied by the Science Schools, ran down S. Tibb's Row,
passed between the present Post Office and S. Andrew's
Church, down Hobson Street, across the ground afterwards
given to the Franciscan Friars, and now the site of Sidney
Sussex College, down Garlic Fair Lane, now Park Street,
and thence to the river which it re-joined just above the
Common now called Jesus Green at a point nearly opposite
to the gable of the Pepysian Library at Magdalene College.
A small part of the town on the further side of the bridge
appears to have been similarly enclosed. 2 The ditch was
crossed by bridges on the lines of the principal roads. One
of these, built of stone, still remains under the road now
called Jesus Lane but formerly Nuns' Lane. There appears
to have been a drawbridge at the end of Sussex Street 3 and
an iron gate on the bridge beyond the Great Bridge. 4
1 From the time of Edward III. 3 Lease of 22 Hen. VI. in the
onwards it was used as a quarry by the Muniment Room of Jesus College (E.
royal founders of more than one col- 15 a).
lege. In 1634 only the gatehouse 4 Lyne's Map, 1574. This map
remained. shews the ditch beyond the river al-
2 The passage of the river was also ready out of use and that on the east
protected by a chain drawn across it at side crossed by numerous small bridges.
the Great Bridge. Cooper, Annals The town receives rent for one of
II. 82. these in 1494.
62 IV. TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE
The river was spanned by two bridges in the middle ages,
namely, the Great Bridge at the Castle end and the Small
Bridges at Newnham. The bridges were in the hands of the
king. His sheriff had to maintain the Great Bridge out of
charges upon certain lands in the county. In the time of
Edward I. the burgesses complained that the bridge was
ruinous and impassable. The moneys levied by the sheriff
for its repair he had kept for his private use ; he had
provided a barge to ferry the people across the river, the tolls
of which barge went into his own pocket ; while the keeper
of the sheriff's prison took away by night the planks
provided for the repairs of the bridge, in order to delay the
work and so augment the sheriff's profits. 1
The road to Newnham and Barton crossed two branches
of the river, hence there were two small bridges. Their
repair and the mending of the road to Barton was committed
to a hermit who lived hard by ; for these services he was
allowed to take toll on certain articles brought into the town
for sale. 2 A chapel stood on or near the bridge at the end
of the fourteenth century.
Between the two bridges were situated the principal
hithes : Corn Hithe, Flax Hithe, Garlic Hithe, Salt Hithe,
Dame Nichol's Hithe. The common hithe immediately
below the Great Bridge still continues in use. Numerous
narrow lanes led down from the High Street to the quays.
The town was intersected by three main streets. From
the Great Bridge ran Bridge Street, called further on in
its course Conduit Street but now Sidney Street, to the
Barnwell Gate opposite to the Post Office where it crossed
1 Hundred Rolls (1278). In 1494 Garret Hostel Bridge was rebuilt of
the Town Treasurers receive rent for a iron in 1837.
house built upon the bridge. The 2 John Jaye was the hermit in 1399.
bridge was of timber till 1754, when it One Thomas Kendall had succeeded
was rebuilt in stone by Essex. The him in 1406 (Cooper, Annals). This
present iron structure by Arthur Brown bridge was of timber till 1841 (see
dates from 1823 (Ancient Cambridge- plate), when the present iron bridge
shire, C.A.S. Cooper, Annals). superseded it (Annals).
64 IV. TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE
the King's Ditch. Thence it was called Preachers' Street.
From this street at a point opposite the Round Church, there
branched the High Street, now Trinity Street and King's
Parade, leading to Trumpington Gate. Parallel to this and
between it and the river was ' Milne ' Street, leading from the
Mills at the south end of the town, and continuing north-
wards to the point where now stands the sundial in the great
court of Trinity College ; there it joined a cross street which
conducted to the High Street. In Mill Street stood most
of the colleges. Parts of it still exist under the names
' Queens' Lane ' and ' Trinity Hall Lane,' but large sections
of it were absorbed on the formation of the sites of King's
and Trinity Colleges, 1 when some smaller streets and lanes
were also closed. The closing of these lanes leading down
to the river, though it was always done by arrangement with
the Town Council and for agreed compensation, was a source
of trouble between the townsfolk and the University.
The Market Place was both geographically and politically
the heart of the medieval town (map, end of vol., and fig. 8,
p. 65). It contained all the principal buildings, the Cross,
the Tolbooth or Guildhall, the prison, the fountain, and also
the stocks and the pillory. Looking on to it or close by
were the principal inns, and the old names of the streets
shew that the principal trades clustered round it.
The old Market Place was very unlike the large square
with which we are now familiar. It was an L-shaped area,
the two arms of which occupied the east and south sides of
the present square, and this form it preserved till 1849. The
north-west part of the present Market Place was covered
with houses crowded together in great confusion, extending
into St Mary's Churchyard and built up against the walls of
the church itself (fig. 14, p. 82). This mass of dwellings
was divided by a very narrow alley running north and south,
called Smiths' Row, afterwards Well Lane, or Pump Lane,
1 The northern part, called Le Foule line with the rest of the street.
Lane, was not quite in a continuous
FIG. 8. PART OF HAMOND'S MAP, 1592.
66 IV. TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE
from the common pump which stood in the middle of it, and
at a later time known as Warwick Street. 1
The open Market Place had assumed the L shape
described above at an early period. Originally there was a
third and southern portion, so that the area then consisted of
three irregular quadrangles. The southern of these has been
occupied, since the fourteenth or fifteenth centuries, by per-
manent stalls or shambles, which, in 1747, gave way to the
Shire House which now forms the front part of the Guildhall.
The Shire House, however, was built upon open arches so
that the ground floor could be let out for market stalls, as it
continued to be till near the middle of the present century.
The Town Hall stood on the south side of this southern part
of the Market Place. By the erection of the stalls and still
more by the building of the Shire House in front of it, it was
thrust into the background, as it were, and lost the con-
spicuous place it formerly held. By the concession of the
Shire House to the town and its conversion to municipal
purposes, the Guildhall was once more brought to the front.
Adjoining the Tolbooth was the Town Gaol. The history of
these buildings will be dealt with more fully in another chapter.
The Cross was raised on a flight of stone steps and was
protected by a lead-covered roof supported
on columns, probably of wood. 2 The
whole erection is shewn very clearly, and
probably with some degree of accuracy, in
Lyne's map of the town made in 1574.
This is particularly fortunate as the pro-
tecting canopy was destroyed in 1587. In II , FIG> 9 -
** J THE MARKET CROSS.
the Treasurers' accounts for that year we
1 Eight of these houses were de- ,50,000 (Cooper, Memorials, in. 314).
stroyed by fire on Sept. 16, 1849. An 2 ^ n tne Town Treasurers' accounts
Act was obtained in the following year for 1564, the following payments occur:
by which the Corporation acquired the " Item, to y e Painter for payntinge y e
sites of the destroyed houses and all market Crosse, xv 1 . iiij d . Item, paid
the adjoining houses. The latter were to y e plomer for mending y e leads about
then destroyed and the Market Place y e crosse, iiij*." In 1569 similar
laid out in its present form in 1855. charges are made.
The total cost of this improvement was
THE CROSS 67
find in the receipts "Item, of Thomas Metcalf for y e old wood
of the crosse xx s "; and among the payments "Item, for
takinge y e leade of y e crosse and for carryinge the same, and
for watchinge it the night before it was taken downe, & for
takinge downe the tymber, iij s . iiij d ." l These entries of course
refer only to the canopy, the cross being left intact. In 1639
it was repaired at a cost of 5. 14^. 4^. Nine years later the
Treasurers acknowledge the receipt of six shillings "for A
stone parte of y e Crosse sold to M r Nicholson." 2 Mr Nicholson
probably bought the head of the cross. The base and shaft
were still standing at the time of the Restoration, when
the Vice-Chancellor, attended by the whole University,
proclaimed Charles the Second as King.
Upon Thursday, being the loth of May, 1660, the Vice-
chancellor sent to all the Heads or in their absence the Presidents
to come to the Schooles at one of the clock, & bring all their
Fellows & Scholars in their Formalitys, which done accordingly, the
Vichechancellor & all the Doctors in Scarlet Gowns the Regents
and Non Regents & Bacchellors in their hoods turned & all the
Schollars in Capps went with lowd Musick before them to the
Crosse on the Market Hill. The Vicechancellor Beadles & as many
D re as could stood upon the severall Seats of the Crosse, & the
School Keeper standing near them made 3 O yeis. The Vicechan-
cellor dictated to the Beadle who proclaymed the same with an
audible voice. 3
In 1664 the Cross was rebuilt. What was the character
of the design we do not know, but it was described a century
later as "an handsome square stone pillar of the lonick
Order ; on the top of which is an Orb and cross gilt." 4
The Cross was destroyed in 1786 when the Town Council
"ordered that the Market Cross be removed to some more
convenient place," and appointed a committee to consider of
a more proper place " if they shall think a Cross necessary." s
Apparently they did not think a cross necessary.
1 Cooper, Annals, II. 450. and Cooper, Annals.
2 Ib. in. 424. 4 Cantabrigia Depicta, 10 (1763).
3 MS Baker xxxiii, 337; xlii, 229; 5 Cooper, Annals, IV. 419.
52
05 IV. TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE
It would seem that there was a fountain in the Market
Place in early times ; it is mentioned in 1423.' In 1429
the Four-and-Twenty made an ordinance to the following
effect :
That the fountain in the market place should be cleansed of
dirt ; and that if any one cast dirt or filth into the same, he should
pay 6j. 8d. to the mayor and bailiffs, to their proper use ; or if he
had not wherewithal to pay that sum, he should be imprisoned for
seven days. 2
We have no indication of the character of this fountain,
but it was probably supplied by a well, as it appears that
water was not brought from a distance by a conduit till the
seventeenth century. In 1567 the Four-and-Twenty voted
2os. to George Addam, burgess, towards making a fountain
in the market in such place as the Mayor should deem fit ;
but no further mention of the proposed fountain occurs.*
Pumps for the use of the public stood in various parts of the
town ; the only water brought from a distance was that
used by the Franciscan Friars. 4 Possibly a part of this
supply was diverted into a fountain for the public use, for
Sidney Street in which the Franciscans' house stood was
formerly called Conduit Street. On the suppression of the
house and the foundation of Trinity College, the supply was
intercepted by the latter foundation, and now supplies the
fountain in the middle of the Great Court.
In 1574 Dr Perne, Dean of Ely and Master of Peterhouse,
had proposed to Lord Burghley 5 that water should be brought
by a conduit which should intercept at Trumpington Ford
an already existing stream running from the springs at Nine
Wells in the parish of Great Shelford into the river.
1 Cooper, Memorials, in. 315. on the subject of the plague, which was
2 Cooper, Annals, I. 180. at that time in the town. "Our synnes
3 Ib. n. 231. is the principall cause," says he. " The
4 The site of their house is now other cause as I conjecture, is the cor-
occupied by Sidney Sussex College. ruption of the King's dytch." (Annals,.
5 Lord Treasurer and Chancellor of n. 322.)
the University. Dr Perne is writing
THE CONDUIT 69
This suggestion was adopted in 1610,* when the work was
carried out according to a scheme by Edward Wright, M.A.,
of Gonville and Caius College. Wright was the best mathe-
matician of his day and planned also the New River. 8
The work was done at the joint expense of the Town
and University. Its object was the "cleansing easement
benefit and commodity of divers and sundry drains and
watercourses belonging to divers and sundry colleges halls
and houses of students within the University, as also for the
cleansing and keeping sweet one common drain or ditch
commonly called King's ditch, and for the avoiding the
annoyance infection and contagion ordinarily arising through
the uncleanness and annoyance thereof." 3 By a system of
sluices the numerous watercourses and ditches which then
existed in connection with the King's Ditch could be periodi-
cally flushed. Some of the water was conveyed in pipes to a
fountain in the Market Place (Plate, and fig. 14, p. 82).
This was built, also by the University and Corporation, in
1614. An inscription on the conduit states that it was built
at the sole charge of Thomas Hobson the famous carrier, but
this is certainly incorrect. It was intended to raise the
necessary amount by voluntary subscriptions, but it appears
that when the work was perfected the ' Undertakers ' had
considerable difficulty in obtaining repayment of the moneys
they had disbursed, and that ;ioo was still owing to them in
1620. When, in 1856, the Market Place was brought to its
present form the old conduit ceased to occupy the central
position it had formerly held ; it stood almost in the corner
of the new Market Place. It was removed in 1855 to the
1 It was probably not long after- man beyond all exception for integrity
wards that the branch was made from of life, an excellent Mathematician, one
the Spittle-house, on or near the site that brought the water from the Spittle-
of the present Hospital, to Emmanuel house to Emmanuel and thence to
and Christ's Colleges by Mr Frost, Christ's Colledge" (At well, The Faith-
"then Manciple of Emmanuel Col- f u ll Surveyour, 81).
ledge in Cambridge, since Sword-bearer 2 Cambridge Portfolio, 312.
to the Lord Maior, and since that a s Cooper, Annals, III. 37.
Secretary to the Councel of State, a
7O IV. TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE
corner of Trumpington Road and Lensfield Road ; at the
same time a new fountain designed by Mr Gordon M. Hills,
Architect, was built in the centre of the Market Place.
Having mentioned the principal features of the Market
Place we must say something of the arrangement of the
Market itself and of the distribution of the different trades in
the streets which surrounded it. Early in the present century
the north end of the Market Place was the Corn Market, and
the south-west part, near S. Mary's Passage, was called the
Garden Market ; this was probably the old arrangement
(fig. 14, p. 82). In addition to these there were several
lesser markets in the surrounding streets. "Butcher Row"
or " the Butchery " may probably be identified with Wheeler
Street, but at a later time it was transferred to Guildhall
Street. 1 We have seen that the space under the old Shire
House was let to butchers for their stalls and that this was a
continuation of ancient usage. The low building at the
corner of Petty Cury and Guildhall Street was till recently
known as the Shambles and was occupied on market days
by about a dozen butcher's stalls. The oat market and the
fish market were on Peas Hill, the fish stalls being under
penthouse roofs, and the milk market was hard by. Of all
these old names the only one which has been preserved is
" Butter Row," by which the passage on two sides of the old
Shire House was known. The butter stalls probably occupied
the back portion of the space under the Shire House. The
old name and the passage itself will shortly disappear.
We can trace some of the old trade quarters by the names
of the streets. These have been, in almost every case, changed
to colourless modern names and can only be made out now
from old maps and leases. We still have Butter Row and
1 In the rsth century the Butchery Guildhall Street was called Butcher
is described as being in S. Edward's Row and Wheeler Street " Short But-
Parish (Lease, Jesus Coll.); Wheeler cher Row" (Lysons). The name
Street answers to this description but Guildhall Street was adopted between
Guildhall Street does not. In 1808 1869 and 1874.
STREET NAMES 71
Petty Cury or the 'little cookery,' 'Parva Cokeria' or
' Petite-curye ' as it was called in the time of Edward III., 1
with its hostels and cook-shops. Shoemaker Row or Cord-
wainer Street has become Market Street ; S. Mary's Gate
was formerly Sheerers' Row or Cutlers' Row, being occupied
by the shearmen or dressers of cloth. 2 Potters' Row ran
northwards out of Sheerers' Row ; Smiths' Row, nearly
opposite to it, ran southwards past the end of S. Mary's
Church and afterwards was called Pump Lane or Warwick
Street. The situation of ' Comerslane,' the wool-combers'
lane, we have not yet discovered ; Pulterie Row was juxta
forum in the I2th of Richard II.; 'the goldsmiths' corner'
was in S. Botolph's Parish. In Conduit Street opposite "le
Conduitte," at the end of the thirteenth century, Geoffry le
Turner had a house between Roger le Turner and Fulco le
Turner ; not far from them, in Feleper Street either Sussex
Street or King Street lived William Filtarius, Aunger le
Feleper, and so on.
Some streets were named after well-known buildings which
were situated in them, such as Preachers' Street in which
stood the house of the Dominicans or Friars Preachers, Milne
Street leading to the mills, Kings Childer's Lane, Monks'
Place and others. But the most striking characteristics of
the local names are the preponderance of personal names and
the frequency with which street names change. For instance,
Thompson's Lane, Aungery's Lane from Mr Robert Aunger,
Wheeler Street from Wheeler the basket-maker who lived
there in the first half of the present century, and many others
now forgotten.
Cambridge seems to have been well supplied with good
inns, in some measure, probably, owing to the fairs and
especially to that at Stourbridge. These inns presented a
comparatively narrow front towards the street. This front
1 Cooper, Annals, i. 273. occupation is well illustrated in a piece
2 They took the cloth from the of carving on a miserere from Bramp-
weavers in a rough state and trimmed ton Church, Hunts, now in the Museum
the nap to an even surface. This of Archaeology and of Ethnology.
72 IV. TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE
contained a large gateway which gave access to a long and
narrow court yard ; round the yard ran open galleries from
which the principal rooms were entered, the ground floor
being devoted to menial offices. At the further end of the
court another archway led through into a second yard
containing the stables. This yard straggled irregularly back
for some distance to join a street in the rear. An exit was
thus provided for waggons which could not possibly have
turned in the confined yard. In this way some inn yards
have gradually become public thoroughfares and others may
be seen at various stages of transition, while some have been
closed and kept private. Rose Crescent marks the site of
the Rose and Crown yard which had its front gates in the
Market Place and a long and very irregular yard running
back to Trinity Street. That part of the building which
bridged over the entry to the yard has been destroyed, but a
part of the old inn is probably preserved in the house on the
west side of the passage to which the pretty red brick front
has been added. The east part has been rebuilt, but the
balcony of the present house occupied by Messrs Reed,
silversmiths, is the old balcony of the inn, from which at
Elections candidates addressed their constituents. 1 Next
door but one to this large inn was the Angel, a house, ap-
parently, of almost equal importance. The yard connected
Cordwainer Street with Green Street, and is still private. A
little further down Cordwainer Street was the Black Bear,
the yard of which is preserved in Market Passage. On the
other side of the way was the Crane, the last fragment of
which was destroyed about 1885.
Another group of important inns was situated in Petty
Cury. Close to the Barnwell Gate was the Wrestlers, a
very picturesque house of the early part of the seventeenth
century, recently destroyed (fig. 10, p. 73). Further up the
street were the Falcon and the Lion. The latter is almost
the only hostelry in the town, still in use as such, which
1 White, The Cambridge Visitors' 1 Guide, 218.
INNS
73
preserves its primitive plan. The buildings, however, though
probably in part medieval, have been cased with brick in
recent times. The Falcon has now ceased to be used as an
inn, but it is a very good example of the old arrangement
(fig. II, p. 75). Till quite recently the court was entirely
74 IV. TOPOGRAPHY AND ARCHITECTURE
surrounded by the timber buildings of the fifteenth or
sixteenth centuries, and the west and south sides still stand
almost unaltered. The buildings are in three floors, the two
upper of which have open galleries, projecting slightly over
the ground storey. The galleries probably ran all round
the court originally, and gave accommodation to the Quality
when a dramatic performance was being given in the inn
yard ; their inferiors meanwhile stood about in the yard or
pit, in the centre of which the stage was erected. The
galleries on the east side appear to have been destroyed in
the last century to form a large reception room, the three
round-headed windows of which appear in our illustration
(fig. 11). Similar reception rooms are found "at the Lion
and also at the Three Tims. The latter house stood at
the corner of the Market and S. Edward's Passage, and
has now been divided up into two dwelling-houses, the
larger of which has the elegant brick front looking towards
the Cury ; " To the Three Tuns, where we drank pretty hard
and many healths to the King &c.," says Pepys. 1
Another large inn was the Eagle and CJiild, now the
Eagle, Bene't Street. This house appears to have survived
as a posting establishment into the days of stage coaches
when many of the other old inns had become private houses.
It was here that, in the good old days, the famous Rutland
Club, of which we shall have to speak in a later chapter,
was wont to meet ; it is called The Post Office in maps of
the early part of the present century ; the greater part is
now a private house. The Dolphin, at the Bridge Street
end of All Saints' Passage, appears to have been a place of
importance. Thomas Cranmer lived here for some time with
his wife, the niece of the landlady, " Black Joan of the
Dolphin" as she is said to have been called. 2 The Cardinal's
Cap was a large inn on the site of which the Pitt Press now
stands, and TJie Sun and The Blue Boar were opposite
1 Pepys 1 Diary, 25 Feb. 1660. 2 Athenac Cantabrigienses, I. 145.
COFFEE HOUSES
75
Trinity College. Some remains of The White Horse,
which stood between S. Catharine's College and old King's
FIG. ii. THE FALCON YARD.
Lane, 1 are preserved in the Archaeological Museum. 2 Some
1 The lane formerly lay further to 2 And illustrated in the Cambridge
the north. Portfolio.
